Sir David attended an awareness event in Parliament on Tuesday 25th October to highlight the potential fire risks of children’s fancy dress costumes. Since Halloween and then bonfire night are just round the corner this event couldn’t have come at a better time. Currently, the law classes fancy dress costumes as toys rather than clothes meaning that they undergo far less rigorous safety tests. But Sainsbury’s, and other leading supermarkets have introduced more stringent testing following a campaign by the host of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, Claudia Winkleman, whose daughter, eight-year-old Mathilda, was seriously burned wearing a witches’ outfit while trick or treating.

Colin Bradford, Head of Non-Food Technical and Ethical Practices at Sainsbury’s, said:

“Many retailers are working extremely hard to address this issue. Today’s event was a great opportunity to raise awareness of fire safety at Halloween and share our own approach, which has led to the introduction of a more stringent approach to product development and flammability testing that exceeds all current legal requirements.”

A number of MPs attended the event in order to show their support as well as tweeting #stayhalloweensafe to spread the message.