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Code of practice could govern recalls of 'white goods'


A new code of practice could govern the process of recalling 'white goods', such as fridges, washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers, the UK government has announced.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that a cross-stakeholder working group has been set up to help identify improvements that could be made to the safety of white goods. One of the areas of focus for the group is "a code of practice for product recalls, including the peer review of risk assessments", it said.

The group will also focus on seeking to identify "the causes of fires in white goods" and on how appliances can be marked in a way to make them "easier to identify after a fire", BEIS said.

The working group will comprise representatives from the fire service, trading standards, consumer groups and industry and is expected to make interim recommendations before the end of 2016.

The group has been set up after it was concluded earlier this month that a major fire at a tower block in London in August, which 120 fire-fighters worked to extinguish, was caused by a tumble dryer which contained a fault that the manufacturer, Whirlpool, was aware of.

The UK's consumer minister Margot James has written to Whirlpool to seek "reassurance that everything possible is being done to ensure the safety of consumers and their families", BEIS said.

James has also asked for "the enforcement of product safety regulation" to be prioritised by local authorities.

James said: "Manufacturers should be doing everything they can to make sure their products are safe to use and, where needed, rectifying issues as quickly as possible. This government takes consumer safety very seriously and I have offered to meet the managing director of Whirlpool to discuss how the company can improve its response to this issue."

"I also want to see what more can be done to improve the safety of white goods and to support local trading standards officers to make sure customers aren’t put at risk," she said.

Specialist in product liability and recall issues Andrew Masterson of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: “A code of practice for recalls makes a lot of sense. Too often companies are ill-prepared to handle a widespread problem effectively and too often traceability information is missing or hard to find on products – even before an incident – once they are in the market place. The focus has to be on ensuring good practice from the supplier end as trading standards just don’t have the resource or often the experience to make a real difference via enforcement activity."

London Fire Brigade announced on Monday that there have been 2,072 fires in the city involving white goods since 2011 and that the fires have "cost the economy more than £118 million" over the period.

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