Since 2004, RoSPA has called upon the blind industry to take voluntary action to reduce the risk of looped cords and we are now working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), CEN (the European Committee for Standardisation), the British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA) and the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) to investigate design modifications and raise awareness of the safety issues.

It is hoped that a voluntary agreement among manufacturers and retailers will eventually see an end to looped blind cords altogether. In the meantime it is essential that they are fitted with some form of safety device such as a chain/cord-break connector, chain/cord tidy or cleat.

A recent summit was attended by delegates from IKEA, John Lewis, FocusDIY, Debenhams, Next, B&Q - as well as other blind manufacturers and retailers, all of whom were enthusiastic about improving the safety of corded blinds, sharing safety information with consumers and reducing the risks posed to children.

The current European standard (EN13120) relating to looped blind cords states that safety devices must be supplied. It is currently being strengthened and its scope broadened. It is hoped that the revised standard will take effect from summer 2011.

In the summer of 2010, two young children died within days of each other after being crushed by sliding electric gates in separate incidents.

A nine-year-old boy had also been crushed to death by an electric swing gate four years earlier.

Two other children narrowly avoided serious injury following unrelated accidents in July and September 2010.

Yet the number of near misses could be much higher. Because the government stopped collecting injury causation data in 2002, RoSPA is only aware of those incidents which are reported by the media.

The two most recent deaths sparked a strong response in the national press and prompted experts in the field to take a closer look at the safety protocols and product standards that guide the design, manufacture, installation, use and maintenance of automated and semi-automated gates.

Proposals to amend the system of timekeeping have a long history in Britain, with RoSPA spearheading the campaign for a change that would bring lighter evenings all year round.

Press Release : RoSPA CHIEF URGES SUPPORT FOR LIGHTER EVENINGS CAMPAIGN

In the UK at present, clocks follow Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) from October to March and British Summer Time (BST) which is GMT plus one hour from March to October.

RoSPA has been calling for many years for a move to a system called "Single/Double Summer Time" (SDST), which would put the clocks one hour ahead of GMT in winter and two hours ahead of GMT in summer. Complementing RoSPA's campaign, a move to SDST has been the subject of a number of bills laid before Parliament.

Reducing the number of people killed and injured on the roads is the key aim behind RoSPA's campaign. The most recent research found that a move to SDST could reduce road deaths by around 80 per year and serious injuries by around 212 per year.