The Scottish response to Grenfell

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Focus on Scotland

FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin reports on the Scottish Government’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report recommendations

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The Scottish response to Grenfell

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n Scotland, most fires in high-rise domestic buildings are contained in the flat where the fire originated, and often to the room of origin. There have been no deaths outside the flat of origin in the past decade in Scotland’. The Scottish Government published its response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report recommendations on October 29. This is a product of the Ministerial Working Group for Building and Fire Safety established in the aftermath of the fire on June 14, 2017. The report sets out how the Scottish Government is dealing with the 46 recommendations in the Phase 1 Report. Fifteen are for the building owners and managers and 31 directed specifically at London Fire Brigade and the wider Fire and Rescue Service. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is addressing the latter and formed a working group to develop and co-ordinate an action plan. The ambition for change has, as in many other areas of Fire and Rescue Service business, been affected by Covid-19. As a result, there is slippage in some of the timescales. Before looking at what SFRS is doing to address the recommendations, it is worth understanding the volume of affected buildings in Scotland. There are 774 high-rise domestic buildings, with over 46,000 individual dwellings in Scotland (as of March 2020). These are mostly located in towns and cities across the central belt of Scotland, with 372 in Glasgow and 134 in Edinburgh. Just over a third of high-rise domestic buildings in Scotland are owned by registered social landlords, with the remaining two thirds divided fairly evenly between local authorities and private owners. Nearly half of this building stock was constructed in the 1960s.

Scottish Fire Safety Legislation Fire safety legislation in Scotland is different to that in England. ‘The Grenfell Inquiry requires most recommendations for those responsible for fire safety to be implemented “in law” and draws on the legal position in England. The position in Scotland is different; as fire safety is a devolved matter, the legal requirements and responsibilities are contained in different fire safety, building standards and housing legislation. The proposed changes to fire safety legislation for England and Wales will not apply in Scotland’. Regardless of the difference in legislation, the Scottish Government has been busy introducing new regulations and guidance in response to the Grenfell Tower fire. These include: • Lowering the height at which combustible cladding can be used from 18 metres to 11 metres to align with firefighting from the ground. • Tighter controls over the combustibility of cladding systems on hospitals, residential care buildings, entertainment and assembly buildings regardless of building height. • Introducing Fire Service activated “evacuation alert systems”, floor and dwelling indicator signs and two escape stairs in all new high-rise domestic buildings. • Extending the minimum standard for smoke and fire alarms that already applied in the private rented sector to all housing tenures, ensuring the highest level of protection whether they own their home or rent from a social or private landlord.

“The Scottish Government has been busy introducing new regulations and guidance in response to the Grenfell Tower fire” www.fire–magazine.com  |  December 2020/January 2021  |  33


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