Question reference: S6W-27003
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 24 April 2024
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Current status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 2 May 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many homes that are operated by (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations are not fitted with integrated fire alarms.
Answer
The results from the 2022 Scottish House Condition Survey were published on 29 February 2024.
In 2022 the Scottish House Condition Survey asked the following new question on fire alarms: Has the dwelling satisfactory equipment for detecting fire and giving warning in the event of fire or suspected fire? Responses were recorded as a yes or no answer, and in order to be recorded as ‘yes’ a dwelling must have interlinked fire alarms installed meeting a number of criteria.
In 2022 around 7% of local authority dwellings (25,000) and 5% of housing association dwellings (13,000) were recorded as not having satisfactory equipment for detecting and warning in the event of fire (not necessarily due to alarms not being interlinked).
While all dwellings meeting the fire alarm criteria have interlinked fire alarms, there may be some dwellings recorded as having insufficient fire detection equipment that do have interlinked fire alarms but failed the fire alarm criteria due to other factors such as insufficient number of alarms, improperly powered alarms, or improper locations of alarms. However, due to the yes/no mode of question this number cannot be quantified from 2022 Scottish House Condition Survey data. From 2023 the question on fire alarms will provide details as to why a dwelling’s equipment for detecting a fire is unsatisfactory which will allow analysis in this area from 2025.