Stair Gates and EN 19301
Stair gates are a type of safety barrier designed to fit across openings to prevent young children gaining access to stairs. The objective is to ensure that all stair gates made available on the market comply with the legal requirements and are "safe products".
One way a stair gate may be accepted as a legally "safe product" is for it to comply with a recognised standard. EN 1930:2000 - for safety barriers used in the home that are designed to fit across openings to limit the access to stairs of children under 24 months - provides the appropriate specification in this case.
Compliance with a British Standard does not of itself confer immunity from legal obligations2 and there is no statutory requirement for stair gates to meet a standard. Nevertheless, satisfying the standard provides the best route for legal compliance.
If a standard is to be accepted as interpreting the requirements of the law, (Annex 1), the standard must comply fully with those regulations and the Directive on which they are based. It is questioned whether this has been achieved in the case of EN 1930 and some issues need to be addressed further, including the following.
1. Method of fixing - adhesives
The effectiveness with which a stair gate can be secured is the most important issue and tests are detailed in the standard to assess this aspect of performance. The use of adhesives must be subject to very close scrutiny, guidance being needed from experts in the field including manufacturers of adhesives, as to the way they are to be used and applied as well as their life expectancy.
It is important to recognise the safety engineering approach in examining the failure mode of such fixings. Failure of the safety barrier caused by lack of adhesion is likely to be sudden and without warning with serious and possibly fatal consequences. Gradual failure is more likely with non-adhesive fixings providing a warning to enable corrective action to be taken prior to catastrophic failure.
2. Method of fixing - pressure mounted
The term "pressure mounted" with regard to stair gates is ambiguous and potentially misleading. The implication of the statement is that this provides the means of fixing which will enable the barrier to be effective, and tests are applied to assess this. If other means are needed to achieve this end, such as cups, screws and/or adhesives, it is suggested that the term "pressure mounted" should not be used.
As far as any descriptions on packaging, it is what the prospective purchaser perceives it to mean and not what the manufacturer intended that is relevant. Where a description is false to a material degree, an offence will have been committed under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.
Safety concerns
Several members3 of RoSPA4 questioned the safety of stair gates, including local authority loan scheme organisers who carry a responsibility to ensure that the products they supply are safe and meet the latest requirements. It was claimed that many stair gates on sale did not meet the requirements of the EN 1930 standard.
Although there is no mandatory requirement to satisfy the standard, in the opinion of RoSPA's Product Safety Adviser if a stair gate fails to meet specific clauses of the standard he would consider it was not a safe product. It is important to point out that this opinion only applies to the particular product that is the subject of a test report.
Trading standards officers were asked for their views but were reluctant to commit resources to investigating the claims without further evidence. RoSPA's Product Safety Adviser arranged for eleven stair gates to be submitted to a UKAS laboratory for testing. The stair gates were obtained and sent to the laboratory in their original packaging in the same way that a member of the public would acquire them. All were marked as complying with EN 1930.
All eleven samples failed on average four clauses of the standard requirements: Clauses 6.6 (structural integrity), 6.9 (footholds), 6.10 (distance between adjacent members), 6.11 (holes), 6.12 (height from floor), 6.15 (alignment), 6.16 (snagging), 6.19 (impact), 8 (marking), 9 (instructions for use) and 10 (purchase information).
RoSPA's local Trading Standards Service at Birmingham City Council was informed. The test laboratory was authorised to discuss the findings with the TSO conducting the investigation. They were also authorised to discuss the reports with two of the manufacturers who had approached them whose stair gates had failed the tests.
Only the test laboratory AMTAC, the TSO at Birmingham and RoSPA's Product Safety Adviser have seen the reports and no details have been published. A statement in answer to enquiries was issued that tests had been commissioned on stair gates on the UK market and the results to date showed that all samples had failed the EN 1930 standard in several respects. Only samples of one brand had passed the tests fully.
It has been stressed that the reports relate to the samples tested and that failure to meet the standard does not mean that the product is not safe in law. This is a matter for the courts to decide if the matter is brought before them. A defendant can claim that his control systems were effective and yet a faulty item was produced and this and any other relevant matters would be considered in any due diligence defence he put forward under Section 39 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987.
Trading standards are unlikely to accept the findings of these tests but the results do provide them with sufficient grounds for taking further action. They are likely to obtain their own samples as supplied on the UK market, have them tested and take whatever action is appropriate depending on the results of their official tests.
Annex 1 Legal requirements
Stair gates are subject to the requirements of the General Product Safety Directive5. In Britain this is in the form of safety regulations6, and the stair gate must therefore be a "safe product" when placed on the market, as determined by those regulations.
Under civil law, the Product Liability Directive7, if it can be established that an injury was caused by a defect in the product, the injured person can sue the manufacturer, importer into the EEA or "own-brander" for damages.
To achieve the status of being a "safe product" the stair gate, under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, including duration, must not present any risk or only the minimum risks compatible with the product's use that is considered acceptable and consistent with a high level of protection for the safety and health of persons taking into account all relevant factors in particular:
- its composition, packaging, instructions for assembly and maintenance;
- its effect on other products, where it is reasonably foreseeable that it will be used with other products;
- the presentation of the product, labelling, instructions for use; and
- the categories of consumers at serious risk when using the product, in particular children.
Similar requirements will apply throughout the EEA by virtue of the two Directives which together with the European standard provide an equivalent level of safety for all consumers and remove technical and legal barriers to trade.
Annex 2 Risk assessment
An approach to standards writing in which the hazards presented by a product are identified and the risks evaluated provides an objective and comprehensive way of dealing with the many issues involved. This approach has not been followed in the case of EN 1930 although many of the hazards have been addressed.
The hazards presented by stair gates include:
- falls caused by fixing failure;
- tripping over horizontal member;
- pinching and crushing of body parts;
- piercing and cutting caused by sharp and pointed parts;
- strangulation caused by entanglement of clothing;
- poisoning from toxic materials;
- choking on small detachable components;
An evaluation of the risks involves calculating how likely it is that each of the identified hazards could cause harm. The number of times the product is used or contact is made with it provides a guide as to the frequency and when this is combined with the other main factor, the severity of injury likely to be caused, an indication of the risk involved is provided. Not only children under 24 months must be considered but also the safety of others who need to use and negotiate the stair gate.
The objective must be firstly to eliminate the hazard and then consider how best the risks may be controlled. Less risky options in the form of better design or safer materials should be cons idered followed by preventing access to the hazard or reducing exposure to it. Instructions and warnings although important should not be seen as an alternative to eliminating hazards and controlling risks.
David Jenkins
Product Safety Adviser
RoSPA
Email: help@rospa.com
1 BS EN 1930:2000 Child care articles - Safety barriers - Safety requirements and test methods
2 EN 1930:2000 National foreword
3 Membership of RoSPA includes local authorities, government departments, safety professionals, retailers, manufacturers, professional institutes, trade associations and individuals.
4 The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents www.rospa.com
5 92/59EEC
6 General Product Safety Regulations 1994 SI No.2328
7 85/374/EEC APCCO 3 06/11/2002 Product safety David Jenkins, RoSPA
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