Consultation on UK furniture fire regulations
Fourth consultation is open to 23rd June with significant changes proposed but furniture fire regulations maintained. Scope changes were already made to the UK Furniture Fire Safety Regulations in 2025, to remove certain children’s and baby products from scope (see pinfa Newsletter n°170). The current proposal to change the fire testing requirements follows three previous public consultations, with presentation of a range of options in 2023 (see pinfa Newsletter n° 154).
The proposals now submitted for legal consultation by the new UK Government (elections 2024) propose to maintain sector specific fire safety regulation for furniture (rather than rely only on GPSR General Product Safety Regulations) but to remove the current requirement for open flame fire resistance and retain only cigarette resistance (smouldering fire source). The Government’s consultation documents conclude that although “flame retardants have appeared to successfully reduce the number of fire casualties” evidence does not allow to identify to what extent downward fire statistical trends are due to other factors, such as installation of smoke alarms, fewer open fires in homes, safer cooking practices. The Government considers that removing the open-flame fire test requirement, in particular for foams in furniture, will lead to a reduction in use of flame retardants. It notes that stakeholders expressed concern about possible increases in smoke toxicity with flame retardant use, but rejects smoke toxicity testing as not feasible and not proportionate. The Government proposes to increase flexibility for furniture manufacturers by allowing either (smouldering fire source) testing of all component materials, or “composite” testing (of the final furniture item). Also, the proposal would remove second-hand, repair and re-upholstery from the Regulation scope (these would be covered by GPSR).
The consultation asks stakeholders four questions, with in each case agree/disagree and possibility to comment (limit 20 000 characters per comment):
- Removal of open-flame test, smouldering-source fire test only,
- Authorisation of either component or composite testing,
- Removal from scope of furniture repair and re-upholstering,
- Removal from scope of second-hand furniture.
UK Government consultation on Furniture Fire Safety Regulations. Open to 23rd June 2026 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/product-regulation-fire-safety-of-domestic-upholstered-furniture
