Improvements in or relating to hand drying systems

A system 2 comprising a hand dryer 4 appliance having an electronic control system (40, Fig 6) that is configured to determine the occurrence of a hand washing operation in the vicinity of the hand dryer appliance, and the duration of the hand washing operation, generate a hand washing data record based on the identification of the hand washing operation in the vicinity of the hand dryer appliance, generate a report message comprising information relating to at least the identified hand washing operation, initiate a communications module (50, Fig 3) to connect to a telecommunications network 10, and transmit the generated report message from the communications module to the telecommunications network. Beneficially, this approach provides the operator of the hand dryer appliance to gather useful data to monitor hygiene in the washroom. The hand dryer is therefore also operable to provide data about hand washing practices.