PARENTS are being urged to ensure they are shopping with responsible retailers in the run-up to Halloween.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents has been working with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and its members to develop a new testing standard for the flammability of children’s dress-up costumes, which goes beyond the current legal level.

The new stringent, voluntary standard means costumes should have a burn rate 300 per cent slower than the current standard. Companies that have tested their costumes to this new standard will be allowed to print “This garment has undergone additional safety testing for flammability” on their labelling.