Furniture Fire Safety Requirements

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire)(Safety) Regulations 1988 make the following requirements:

All new furniture (except mattresses, bedbases, pillows, scatter cushions, seat pads and loose and stretch covers for furniture) must carry a display label at the point of sale. This is the retailer’s responsibility.

Examples of display labels

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire)(Safety) Regulations 1988 make the following requirements:

All new domestic upholstered furniture, furnishings and other products containing upholstery (except mattresses, bedbases, pillows, scatter cushions, seat pads and loose and stretch covers for furniture) must carry a display label at the point of sale. This is the retailer’s responsibility.

Examples of display labels

All new domestic upholstered furniture (except mattresses and bed bases) and loose and stretch covers are required to carry a permanent label providing information about their fire retarding properties. Such a label will indicate compliance, although lack of one would not necessarily imply non-compliance as the label might have been removed.

Examples of permanent fire safety labels

Although mattresses and bedbases do not have to carry a label under these regulations there are separate labelling requirements under British Standard 7177: 1989)

All furniture (new and second hand) must meet the Fire Resistance Requirements:

• Furniture must pass a cigarette-resistance test
• Cover fabric, whether for use in permanent or loose covers, must pass a match-resistance test
• Filling materials for all furniture must pass ignitability tests.