Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Scottish Government submission of 12 November 2021
PE1910/A - Amend the forthcoming legal requirement to have interlinked fire and smoke alarms in small houses
Thank you for your email of 15 October 2021 seeking the Scottish Government’s views on the action called for in Petition PE1910.
The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce an exemption for smaller houses from the requirement to have interlinked smoke and fire alarms fitted which comes into force in February 2022.
The view of the Scottish Government is that such an exemption would be inappropriate.
Fire alarms are designed to produce a sound output sufficient to rouse an occupier asleep in a bedroom if placed in a landing or hallway. Having an interlinked system means you will be alerted immediately, regardless of the room in which the alarm is triggered, increasing the chance to escape. While it is likely that an occupier in a small house would hear the unlinked alarms clearly during the daytime, such a system is not sufficient to ensure that they would be woken quickly in the event of a fire during the night.
In 2018/19, there were 44 fire fatalities in Scotland, 19 of these fires started in a living room, and another 4 in a kitchen. From 2014-2015 to 2017-2018 where fatalities were recorded, on average 30% of fires started in the living room, and 15% in the kitchen. This means that a significant number of fire related deaths occurred from fires starting in these rooms. It is therefore important that the outbreak of fire in living rooms and kitchens is detected quickly and the alarm raised as early as possible during the early stages of fire growth. The best way to do this is to have an interlinked alarm system.
The requirement for interlinked alarms will extend to all homes the same level of protection that is currently required in new build homes throughout the UK and in private rented homes in Scotland. There are no exemptions for smaller homes in any of these standards.
The Scottish Government carried out a public consultation before introducing this legislation which showed very strong support for a new minimum standard for fire and smoke detectors across all housing and that it should be based on the standard currently applying to private rented property which many respondents felt is a good minimum fire safety standard. The regulations introducing the new standard were unanimously supported by the members of the Local Government and Communities Committee of the Scottish Parliament.
For these reasons, we do not support the petitioner.