The Government welcome the joint letter of 15 June by the Commission, Health Canada and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, to their respective standardisation organisations urging them to come to a swift and ideally harmonised response to the safety risks posed to young children by certain internal blinds. This letter has further highlighted the urgent need to take action if we are to eliminate this cause of injury and death.The Standard setting process will take time and looks unlikely to be concluded until late 2011 at the earliest. In the meantime, this Department will continue to work with industry, through the British Blind and Shutter Association, and others like Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, and the Child Accident Prevention Trust in ensuring the appropriate safety messages are conveyed to consumers and retailers. To this end the Department has invited the major retailers of internal blinds to a safety seminar to be held on 27 September.