pinfa input UK furniture fire safety

pinfa opposes the UK’s proposal to move backwards on furniture fire safety underlining that safe PIN FRs are available (see list submitted below). pinfa underlines the increasing fire risks in homes from ubiquitous electronics, electronics chargers, cables and batteries, often near or underneath furniture, and from an ageing population.

pinfa suggests that the UK retain at least an open flame fire safety requirement for domestic furniture, because the proposed smouldering cigarette test fails to reflect real furniture fire risk because many synthetic materials (especially furniture covering textiles) pass the test not by resisting fire but by melting away from the heat source in the test. In real furniture, the heat source would then contact other materials, in particular highly flammable cushioning foams.

pinfa notes that with smoulder test only requirements in place in Europe, furniture is the most common cause of home fires leading to deaths in The Netherlands (Lieuwe de Witte, 2020) and in the USA (NFPA, 1/8/2025) and that data suggests a slow increase in fire deaths in the USA since 2013 when TB117 was downgraded to cigarette test only.

UK Furniture Fire Safety Consultation, closed 23 June 2026 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/product-regulation-fire-safety-of-domestic-upholstered-furniture

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