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28th January 2021

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Minister confirms furniture industry support for fire safety regulations

The British Furniture Confederation recently met with Ed Davey MP, Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer & Postal Affairs at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The meeting, organised by Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland, was held to discuss the UK's Furniture and Furnishings Fire Safety Regulations, which are currently under review in relation to the Government's red tape reduction initiative.

Currently, Furniture and Furnishings fire safe regulations are more stringent in the UK than elsewhere in Europe. The British Furniture Confederation met with Ed Davey to ensure that this will remain the case, and to pledge the UK furniture industries support of the existing flammability regulations.

The delegation from BFC included FIRA's Principal Technical Manager, Phil Reynolds, who attended as the BFC technical representative, as well as Stephen McPartland, MP - chair of the All Party Parliamentary Interest Group for Furniture, Richard Plowman of the Leisure and Outdoor Furniture Association, Jessica Alexander - National Bed Federation and Martin Jourdan - Chair of the BFC.

Commenting, Stephen McPartland, MP said, "Safety within the Furniture and Furnishings industry is of the utmost importance. Although there are no planned changes to the Fire Safety regulations currently held in the UK, we want to ensure that we continue to produce the safest furniture products possible in the UK."

The meeting concluded positively, with the minister acknowledging that the Regulations should not be relaxed in anyway, and recognition of the Furniture Industries support of the regulations.

In addition the delegation was keen that any revision would not weaken the current regulations, which the BFC believes would be detrimental to UK consumer safety, and affect the competitiveness of the UK upholstery sector.

Picture shows: Phil Reynolds - Furniture Industry Research Association, Richard Plowman - Leisure & Outdoor Furniture Association, Stephen McPartland, MP - chair of the All Party Parliamentary Interest Group for furniture, Jessica Alexander - National Bed Federation and Martin Jourdan - Chair of the BFC.

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8th July 2011