Building Regulations (Review) Bill [HL]

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts

Friday 4th March 2011 Lords Chamber

I recently attended a meeting of Staffordshire fire officers and politicians. We were presented with a booklet entitled, “Sprinklers: Your Personal Fire Fighter 24/7”. The booklet contains many interesting points, given the lack of knowledge about sprinklers. It says that there have been no multiple fire deaths in the United Kingdom following a fire in a dwelling with a working sprinkler system. US experience shows that 98 per cent of all fires in dwellings with sprinklers are extinguished with only one sprinkler head. Only the sprinkler heads in the immediate vicinity of a fire actually operate. Sprinklers do not cause false alarms. They operate only if there is an actual fire. I hope that this updated information and the improved working of sprinklers will be examined and brought to the Minister’s attention. I hope that the amendment will be accepted. I mentioned the gap between the 30-month and 12-month periods. At the end of the conference I was approached by a fire officer who told me that he had calculated how many firefighters and others would die because we were missing out on the opportunity to implement appropriate legislation. I hope that the Minister will give us a warmer reply than has hitherto been the case because we can act today in a beneficial way.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, for introducing the Bill, particularly the amendment to which he has spoken. The Bill seeks a review. I note that the period that is sought is 30 months, as the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, said. Thirty months for carrying out a review is much better than 12 months. I was not a Member of this House when the original Bill was produced. I would love to say a lot more about it but I will keep my remarks short.

A lot of work needs to be done as regards fire suppression systems. However, wired-in smoke alarms have been a great boon. Of course, water sprinkler systems do not stop oil fires happening in kitchens. As the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, said, there is a Welsh dimension to the measure, as in the previous debate. On 16 February this year, the Welsh Assembly voted for it to become law in Wales that sprinklers be installed in all new residential buildings. In, say, 30 months—which is the period mentioned in the Bill—some worthwhile information will come from Wales on how effective sprinklers have been in dousing fires and saving lives, and on whether the cost of installation affected the level of new build in Wales; installing water systems does not mean just putting in a pipe and a sprinkler, it means putting in water tanks and providing a heavier structure in the buildings to carry them.

We have no objection to an increase from 12 months to 30 months, which is the point of the amendment, but I remain doubtful whether such a review is needed, at least until the results of what is happening in Wales is made known to us all. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, for bringing this matter before us once more.