§ Sir George YoungTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what representations he has had from the furnishing fabric trade on his proposals to remove on 1 March 1989 the cigarette test exemption for upholstery fabrics.
§ Mr. ForthThe exemption from the cigarette test in the 1980 regulations was limited to fabrics supplied separately from furniture; this included the "customer's own cover" trade. It has long been regarded as an undesirable loophole. It was therefore decided to include furniture supplied in this way in the scope of the 1988 regulations, which of course include requirements more stringent than the cigarette test. Some representatives of the fabric trade suggested that the exemption could stay, but since they also stated that "customer's own cover" accounts for a growing share of the furniture trade I was unable to consider the suggestion sympathetically.
§ Sir George YoungTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster why he has brought forward from March 1990 to March 1989 the date for removing the cigarette test exemption for upholstered fabrics.
§ Mr. ForthThe cigarette ignition test in the 1980 regulations is applied to complete items of furniture rather330W than to fabrics over a standard filling. The great majority of new upholstered furniture sold in this country since 1982 meets the requirement and much information is therefore available about the combinations of cover and filling which pass and fail. It has been generally known in the furniture business for well over a year that new regulations would import the cigarette resistance requirement from the 1980 regulations.
The draft regulations issued for comment in March 1988 applied to all upholstered furniture. The industry needed time to adapt to the new and more stringent requirement for match resistance of covering fabrics, so the March 1990 date has been set for it. But in the interests of safety, the sooner we could reasonably extend the well-known cigarette test to all upholstered furniture, the better; March 1989 was therefore chosen.
§ Sir George YoungTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he has consulted with trading standards officers, the fire service and representatives of the industry about his proposals to remove the cigarette test exemption for upholstery fabrics by 1 March 1989.