Hansard

The next petition is PE2058, which was lodged by Julie Louden, and calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to improve fire safety in dog boarding kennels by mandating the installation of smoke detectors, smoke alarms and sprinkler systems.

We last considered the petition at our meeting on 21 February 2024 and agreed to write to the Scottish Government, COSLA, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, Dogs Trust, and other relevant stakeholders. The committee has received responses from all of them, as well as from the Pet Industry Federation and the petitioner.

The Scottish Government is considering revoking the act that currently regulates animal boarding and bringing boarding under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021. Its response to the committee states that the Scottish Government will consider how to address fire safety under any future licensing scheme.

Dogs Trust stated its support for bringing animal boarding under the scope of the 2021 regulations, noting that it hopes to see the creation of guidance under any new legislation for boarding establishments which mirrors the animal welfare establishments guidance, as a minimum.

The Scottish Government’s submission also states that, in light of the incident that is highlighted in the petition, animal welfare officials will seek to engage with colleagues in the fire protection and safety unit to identify appropriate enhanced fire safety measures and how best to incorporate those measures into any future licensing scheme for animal boarding.

Stakeholders raised concerns about the practicalities of requiring sprinkler systems to be installed in dog boarding and rehoming kennels. The Dogs Trust consulted a contractor, which gave a rough estimate of tens of thousands of pounds to install a sprinkler system at one of its centres.

The Pet Industry Federation sought views from kennel and cattery members across Scotland. All respondents said that they had smoke detectors in addition to the fire extinguishers that are required, and none had sprinklers installed. Respondents were open to the suggestion that sprinklers be installed. However, some raised concerns about the cost and economic viability of installing sprinkler systems in commercial boarding premises and said that, in some cases, it would be practically impossible to do so. The federation concluded that the cost of installing such systems was likely to be too high for many and that it would be difficult to support an additional requirement that could put its members out of business.

In its response, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service provided figures for the number of fire incidents since 2009. Twenty-four fire incidents were recorded under the relevant category for animal boarding and shelter kennels for dogs. Four of the premises involved in those incidents were noted to have had smoke alarms present. The SFRS noted that, under fire safety law, measures need to be taken to address risk, but not to the extent that the cost, effort and other disadvantages associated with the provision of fire safety measures would be disproportionate to the risk to life.

Do members have any comments or suggestions?