Scottish Government accused of 'breaking own laws' over smoke alarm delay

Buildings on the Scottish Government estate were not compliant with new fire safety laws for six months, it has been claimed.

Under legislation implemented on February 1 this year, all households in the country are required to have interlinked smoke alarms installed.

However, according to a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted by the Scottish Conservatives, the last Scottish Government building to install fire alarms did so on August 18.

It is more than six months since the February 1 deadline for the interlinked fire alarms to be put in place.

Opposition parties had previously called for the deadline to be extended after a study found that almost half of Scots had not installed the alarms by the deadline.

However, those calls were rejected by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Conservatives have criticised the Government for not complying with the law for six months.

They claim that by refusing to push the deadline back, many Scots were forced to pay hundreds of pounds to become legally compliant.

Miles Briggs, the party’s housing and local government spokesman insisted that the SNP must take “full responsibility”.

The Government has said that all buildings on its estate are compliant with regulations.

“This is a shameful admission from the SNP Government, who refused to move the deadline for installing these new alarms even when it became apparent that they had failed to properly inform the public of the change in the law,” said Briggs.

“Everybody agreed that these new alarms should be installed for safety reasons but the government didn’t do enough to tell people what they needed to do.

“Now we have learned that the SNP were breaking their own law for more than six months, long after their buildings should have been up to standard.

“The SNP must now take full responsibility for their failures, and explain to the public why it took so long for these buildings to comply with the law.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government estate consists of workplaces and a small amount of living accommodation.

“All buildings are compliant with all relevant fire prevention and detection regulations.”