Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what fire safety inspections have been carried out at schools in Lambeth and Southwark.

Fire authorities are the main agency responsible for carrying out fire safety inspections, enforcement procedures, assessing complaints and undertaking investigations. Responsibility for managing individual buildings and their compliance with fire safety requirements rest with the body responsible for the school.

All school buildings must comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This requires all bodies responsible for schools to appoint a responsible person who takes reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire. The Order requires schools to conduct regular termly drills, so that pupils and staff are able to evacuate quickly in the case of fire.

This duty also involves carrying out a fire risk assessment, or ensuring one is carried out. A fire risk assessment includes: identifying fire hazards, considering who may be at risk, eliminating or reducing risk, providing fire precautions to deal with remaining risk, recording major findings of the risk assessment, the action taken, and reviewing the findings regularly and when necessary.