Automatic Fire Alarm Response changes from 1 July 2023

The change was announced by The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) on 23 March 2023, and they also encouraged businesses to ensure their fire safety procedures are adequate and in place before the change comes into effect. The change is expected to affect offices, factories, shops, museums and leisure facilities, who will need to confirm signs of fire before services will be called out. The changes are being implemented following the outcome of a public consultation held by SRFS in 2021, concerning the options to reduce the number of false alarms to allow firefighters to have more time for training and fire safety prevention work to support communities, as well as the availability to attend real emergencies.

In cases where there is a real fire, the fire service will respond when contacted by dialling 999 and giving confirmation of the presence of fire, but the automatic alarm will no longer be sufficient by itself. The SRFS reports that fire service crews are called to an average of with each incident involving nine firefighters and two fire appliances as part of the response.

The above change will not apply to sleeping premises such as hospitals, domestic dwellings, care homes, or hotels, who will continue to receive emergency responses as normal.

This change has already been implemented by other fire and rescue services across the UK, such as Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, who in May 2023 expanded their times between which they do not respond to automatic fire alarms on commercial premises to 24 hours, seven days a week. Other services such as Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue continue to operate a reduced callout service which sees them only respond to automatic fire alarms in commercial premises outside the hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

The SRFS has reminded dutyholders that they must ensure that their premises are safe for staff, visitors and occupants in the event of a fire, and that dutyholders have a responsibility under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 to maintain the facilities and equipment provided. Failure to do this could lead to prosecution. Dutyholders should also work with their fire risk assessor and update their fire risk assessment with any changes.

The SRFS outlined several other key steps that dutyholders can undertake in the wake of the new changes:

• Review the Fire Safety Risk Assessment.
https://www.cambsfire.gov.uk/business-safety/about-our-service/reducing-false-alarms/automatic-fire-alarm-response
• Fit manual call points with protective covers in problem, vulnerable or high traffic areas.
• Keep AFD systems appropriately maintained.
• Consider whether a link to an Alarm Receiving Centre is necessary.

Dutyholders should also contact their insurance company to discuss the changes in response to Automatic Fire Alarm activations - call now to discuss with your Towergate advisor.