Every home in Scotland must have interlinked fire alarms by February 2022.

Being interlinked means if one alarm goes off, they all go off. You may not always hear the alarm closest to the fire, especially if you’re somewhere else in the house. An interlinked system will alert you immediately.

What you need to do

If you are a homeowner, it's your responsibility to make sure your home meets the new fire alarms standard.

By February 2022 every home will need to have:

one smoke alarm in the room you spend most of the day, usually your living room one smoke alarm in every circulation space on each storey, such as hallways and landings one heat alarm in the kitchen All smoke and heat alarms should be mounted on the ceiling and be interlinked.

If you have a carbon-fuelled appliance, like a boiler, fire, heater or flue you must also have a carbon monoxide detector. This does not need to be linked to the fire alarms.