Note for Guidance

The Fire Safety Advice Centre

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations

Introduction

To the consumer the most important part of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations is the labeling. The label tells you what standard the item meet in accordance to the regulations. If you wish to study the full guide please referrer to the Guide to the Regulations or the legislation itself (Statutory Instrument No. 1324) and (Statutory Instrument 1989 No. 2358).

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations are enforced by the Local Trading Standards Department. Those requiring advice, letting out properties or who are renting themselves, should contact their Local Trading Standards Department via their local Council if they require advice, clarification or wish to take enforcement action.

Display labels

All new furniture except, mattresses and bed-bases, pillows, scatter cushions and seat pads, loose cover and stretch covers for furniture, must carry a display label at the point of sale. It is the retailer's responsibility to ensure that furniture on display carries the correct label. The Regulations contain full-size illustrations of display labels in co lour. Reduced illustrations are shown on this page to explain the meaning of the labels. Furniture sold as a collection of items, such as three-piece suites, must carry the appropriate display label on each individual item. In all cases the display label must be attached to the furniture in a prominent position so that the label will be clearly visible to a potential purchaser of the furniture and the wording on both sides can be read with reasonable ease.

Appropriate to new furniture, like baby nests, which meets the filling requirements and is cigarette resistant. The word "product" may be substituted for the word "furniture" on the second side of this label.

Appropriate to new furniture which meets the filling requirements and is both cigarette and match resistant.

Appropriate to new furniture with a limited range of cover fabrics. The cover fabric is not match resistant, but the furniture has an interliner which passes the specified test. The furniture meets the filling requirements and is cigarette resistant.

Permanent labels

All new furniture, except mattresses and bed-bases and loose and stretch covers for furniture must carry a permanent label. It is primarily the responsibility of the first supplier, the manufacturer or the importer, to ensure that the label gives the necessary information, but retailers are also under a duty to ensure that the permanent label is on the goods when they supply them to the consumers.

Choice of permanent label

Suppliers can choose between two versions of the permanent label, either, a label giving full information about the furniture or a shorter label giving only the minimum information about the furniture. Where the first supplier decides to use the shorter label, any person who supplies that furniture must make available to the enforcement agency, on request, certain information about the furniture. A full description of what must be included in these labels is given in Parts II and III, respectively, of Schedule 7 to the Regulations. Completed examples of the labels are shown below. (These are illustrations only).

Size of letters

All words and numbers on the permanent label must be in medium letters of at least 10 point (approx 2.5 millimetres high) in upper or lower case. The letters must be legible, in durable print, and appear on a label of sufficient co lour contrast to enable them to be seen clearly.

Position of the label

The label must be securely attached to the furniture, and cannot be removed without causing damage to the label or the product. It may appear on any external surface of the article. In the case of seating furniture the platform underneath any removable seating cushions may be regarded as an external surface for this purpose. Furniture sold as a collection of items, such as three-piece suites, must carry a label on each individual item. In the case of loose or stretch covers for furniture the label may appear on the underside of the fabric. The following are examples of the permanent label for a item of domestic
upholstered furniture.

Example of label giving full information:

Example of shorter label:

Reduced information for some articles

Certain articles do not require all the above information to be given. The following is a list of these articles, together with the information which needs to be given on the full and shorter variants of the label.

Information requirements at point of sale

Trading Standards Officers have powers to inspect products and related documents. From 1 November 1988 any person who supplies new furniture, or loose covers or stretch covers, which carries the shorter permanent label must make
available to an enforcement agency, on request, certain information about the furniture, or loose or stretch covers. This information, which should be readily available for inspection and contain the following details:

• The name and the postal code of the address of the first supplier, manufacturer or importer.
• The date on which the article was manufactured or imported.
• The description of all the filling materials included in the article.
• The description of all the covering materials included in the article.

Certain articles do not require all of the above information to be provided.

A list of articles together with the information must be provided and therefore retailers need to ensure that the manufacturer or importer, or any intermediary supplier, provides the above details for supplies of furniture which carry the shorter label. This information could be included, for example, on the supplier's invoice to the retailer. Retailers must retain this information

Further Information

I understand some small manufacturer have had problems sourcing these labels and cannot find a printer who can supply them. I found a company Nelsons Labels (Manchester) Ltd. that stocked the appropriate labels also CPS (Wales) Ltd, although I am sure there must others in the UK.

I would suggest you first download Guide to the Regulations and fully understand the type of labels required for your products. Then contact Nelsons or CPS and if you wish to see a selection of the labels available, you can download from Nelson Fire Labels.

This handout provides a general overview and basic information on this topic. It may not apply to everyone, consequently to find out if this guide applies to you and to get more information on this subject, study all the relevant legislation, guides and British/European Standards. Also you should seek advice from an expert on the subject or your local Fire Safety Officer or Fire Safety Professional.

Merseyside Fire Liaison Panel. Permission is granted to print and photocopy this material for nonprofit educational uses.

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This page was last checked and modified on Sunday, 29 June, 2008 11:25