Faulty Tumble Dryers (Fire Risk)

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Tuesday 13th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) on obtaining this debate. It is imperative that the Government take action to move Whirlpool now. It is also imperative that the Government look at the whole recall system. At present it is far too dependent on the consumer taking action and, as my hon. Friend said, the consumer registering. Even if they do register, how many people will remember, when they move house, to update their details and register the fact that they have taken their tumble dryer or their fridge freezer with them?

The system is far too oriented in favour of the manufacturer. That is why I fear that the steering group, whose members are preponderantly manufacturers, will not come up with a consumer-focused response to the report. It is vital that the UK consumer product recall report by Lynn Faulds Wood that came out in February 2016 is taken forward. There needs to be a trusted website on which people can see recalls. People who buy from eBay and Amazon are more and more inclined to look at the eBay and Amazon websites. There should be notes there on products that are recalled, alerting people who bought or are thinking of buying the same product.

There needs to be joined-up work, which is lacking at present. Trading standards officers should be given more support, and there needs to be more joined-up work between trading standards, manufacturers and consumers so that we all work together for the same aim—to make sure that a product that a consumer buys is safe. If by any chance a product is found not to be safe—we need more research into safety—trading standards, manufacturers and consumers should know that as soon as possible, by any means possible. Let us remember that many people who buy products from firms such as BrightHouse are not online.