The Bunk Beds (Entrapment Hazards) (Safety) Regulations 1987

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations prohibit the supply (including offering or agreeing to supply and exposing or possessing for supply) of bunk beds so constructed as to create, at or above the height of the bed’s sleeping surface, a risk of injury (including strangulation etc.) to a child under six or to allow the sleeping surface and any bars, rails, head-boards, foot-boards etc round it to produce, at the same height, gaps which are not within permissible limits. The method of measuring whether a gap is a “permissible gap” (defined in regulation 2) is set out in the Schedule to the Regulations. A gap in the sleeping surface of a bed is permissible if it is no more than 75 millimetres when measured in accordance with paragraph 2 to the Schedule, and a gap elsewhere in the relevant part of the bed’s structure is permissible if it is not less than 60 millimetres nor more than 75 millimetres when measured in accordance with paragraph 3. The prohibition on supply extends to beds supplied in kit form if the bed is not accompanied by full and clear instructions for assembly or, if assembled in accordance with such instructions, would not comply with the requirements of the Regulations (regulations 2, 3 and 4).

“Bunk bed” is defined in regulation 2.