Calls have been made for new fire safety legislation after it emerged more than 120 schools in Scotland do not have smoke detectors.
Freedom of Information requests by the Press Association show there are 124 such buildings in 10 out of the 32 local authority areas without the devices.
They include schools in Glasgow, Fife and the Highlands - while Aberdeenshire said it did not know which had detectors fitted.
MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife Mark Ruskell previously raised the issue in Holyrood after a school in his constituency went up in flames when it did not have an automatic alarm.
He said: "Our schools deserve the best quality fire alarm and smoke detection equipment, councils simply can't take short cuts, we are talking about relatively small sums of money required to bring every last school in Scotland up to a higher standard.
"The fire safety legislation needs to be updated for the 21st Century to provide the best protection, automatic smoke detectors could also help prevent a school from being gutted by fire outside the school day.
"The Education Minister John Swinney asked me for hard evidence of where schools are poorly equipped, these 124 schools are a wake-up call for the Scottish Government and councils to take action immediately."
READ MORE: Food and farming groups attack plans for veggie days in schools
Highland Council had the most schools without a smoke detector, at 51 - more than a quarter of its educational buildings - but a spokeswoman said work was ongoing to replace the systems.
Fife had 32, North Lanarkshire had 14, Dumfries and Galloway had 10, Glasgow had five, Moray and Falkirk both had three, while Midlothian, Angus and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar all had two.
The authorities said they were operating within fire safety legislation and have pointed to manual alarm systems within their premises as evidence.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Local authorities are responsible for ensuring the fire safety of all of their schools.
"The Deputy First Minister wrote to all local authorities last year and received reassurances that all necessary steps are being taken on this crucial issue.
"As part of these steps, it is vital that schools are fully compliant with the guidance and advice of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and we expect all schools and local authorities to take this issue as seriously as we do.
"We will reinforce that requirement to local authorities."
READ MORE: Food and farming groups attack plans for veggie days in schools
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) area manager for prevention and protection Stuart Stevens said: "SFRS will continue to provide advice in relation to fire risk assessment and the appropriate fire safety measures within school premises in accordance with the current Scottish Government guidance."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel