Fire safety in schools

This House notes with concern the findings of Zurich Municipal that 67 per cent of English schools are rated as poor for fire protection systems and that only 5 per cent of English schools are rated as excellent compared with 29 per cent of schools rated as excellent in Scotland; further notes that according to the study the five biggest fire risks are lack of fixed fire protection including sprinklers, building combustibility and lack of modern construction methods, fire detection, arson and housekeeping and smoking controls; commends regulations in Scotland and Wales, where sprinkler systems are legally required in all new and major refurbished schools; urges the Government to legislate to require the mandatory installation of sprinklers in new and major refurbished schools in England; and calls on the Department for Education to ensure the removal of combustible materials in schools such as classroom noticeboards that are not fire compliant and require them to be replaced with noticeboards that are fire safe to European BS EN 13501 class B standard.