Urgent question as half-million unsafe tumble driers recalled

In 2015, Whirlpool told customers who had purchased its Hotpoint, Indesit and Credo tumble dryers to unplug their machines until a fault could be corrected. The fault, which has been linked to up to 750 fires in an 11 year period, affected as many as 5.3 million machines, of which as many as 500,000 machines could still be in use unmodified.

Whirlpool say that safety is their 'number one priority'.

Andy Slaughter MP, a flat block in whose constituency suffered a serious fire caused by Whirlpool fault,  asked the Government to make a statement on the situation. 

• Watch Parliament TV: Urgent question on recall of 500,000 unsafe tumble driers
• Read Commons Hansard: Urgent question on recall of 500,000 unsafe tumble driers  

Responding to the urgent question, Kelly Tolhurst, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) said that the Government had issued the recall after Whirlpool's "inadequate" response to finding regarding remaining unsafe appliances. She said that legal restrictions prevented her from giving more details, but said she would update the House when possible.

"The OPSS [Office for Product Safety and Standards] will continue to monitor this situation closely, and will take any steps it deems appropriate to ensure our consumers in the UK continue to enjoy the high levels of protection they have come to expect".

Following the Government's response, Andy Slaughter said there had been a lack of action by both the Government and Whirlpool in the last four years and said;

"This is the most serious consumer safety issue for many years [...] anything less than a recall now will be considered wholly inadequate"

Image: Pexels

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