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<p>The Government takes the safety of pupils and staff seriously. All schools have
to follow strict fire safety regulations, including having a Fire Risk Assessment,
designed to ensure they are as safe as possible and well prepared in the event of
a fire.</p><p>Where sprinklers are deemed necessary to keep pupils and staff safe,
following an assessment of risk at the design stage, or to meet local planning requirements,
they must be fitted. All new school building projects must comply with Building Regulations,
including on fire safety, and this is independently checked by Building Control or
an Approved Inspector before buildings are occupied.</p><p>As not all new schools
are commissioned by the Department, we do not hold data on the number of all new schools
that have been built with or without sprinklers installed. The Department do hold
information on the centrally funded Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP).</p><p>The
Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has built or refurbished seven schools
in Coventry under phase one of PSBP and of those, five schools were fitted with sprinklers.</p><p>The
Depatment does not hold comprehensive data on the number of free schools fitted with
sprinklers as schools developed under the free schools programme were originally managed
by the individual free school proposer groups. The Department is doing further work
that will enable us to provide figures on sprinklers fitted in all schools delivered
centrally by the ESFA.</p><p>Alongside the rest of Government, the Department will
take forward findings from the independent review of Building Regulations and Fire
Safety, and from the Public Inquiry into the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.</p>
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