Portcullis House: Fire Alarms

To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commissions how many times the fire alarm in Portcullis house has been activated (a) for fire drill purposes, (b) for testing, (c) because of a fire or smoke, (d) because of a defect in the system and (e) for other reasons in (i) each year since 2005 and (ii) 2009 to date. (288030)

The information requested is as follows:

Cause of evacuation alarm actuation	May 2005 to December 2007	January to December 2008	January to June 2009
Fire	4	0	1
Smoke	0	0	1
Fire drills	3	1	1
Alarm testing	0	0	1
Working on alarm system	4	0	0
System defect	11	1	0
Other¹	10	2	2
Total	32	4	6
¹ Includes operation of manual call points for no obvious reason, construction (hot) works and contractors and staff disturbing detection beams.

Fire alarm activation records for 2005 to 2007 are archived off site and it has not been possible to break down the figures for that period by year.

Volume 496: debated on Monday 20 July 2009