In November last year it was announced that at the BAFE Board of Directors and Council meeting held in October 2015 it was decided to withdraw three BAFE schemes with effect from June 2016 for current registered companies and with immediate effect for any new applications.

These schemes are:

• SP103 Refurbishment of Portable Fire Extinguishers
• MP101 Manufacture of Portable Fire Extinguishers
• MP103 Manufacture of Fire Blankets

All of the registered companies had been consulted during the review process and have been advised of the decisions taken.

For both of the product manufacture schemes, Manufacture of Portable Extinguishers MP101 and Manufacture of Fire Blankets MP103 there are issues that BAFE are unable to address, such as regular independent testing of these products and ongoing checks to ensure safe and fit for purpose in the event of fire. It was agreed that the BAFE endorsement was not of value to end users across the life cycle of the product unless linked to ongoing competent maintenance. These BAFE schemes only endorsed certification received from accredited test houses for the manufacturing. The BAFE brand carries value and maintains its quality status through the ongoing Maintenance of Portable Fire Extinguishers Scheme SP101/ST104. This scheme is currently under review and there may be some provision for fire extinguisher manufacturers to have a role to play in this.

Although the Refurbishment of Portable Fire Extinguishers SP103 has existed to ensure this process is performed in a safe manner, it was discussed that there is no BAFE input into the validity of products during their complete lifecycle as there is no means of verifying if the products are maintained and/or by whom. There are issues with the requirements for CE marking of refurbished products that we are currently seeking to clarify before consideration is given to a more robust scheme.

The three schemes SP103, MP101 and MP103 are all officially withdrawn and will cease to operate 30th June 2016.

For more information regarding this matter please contact us