New window legislation sought

Jackloc is calling on a group of MPs to drive forward legislative change that could see UK hotels brought into line with the health and social care sector’s stringent approach to window safety.

Eric Collins, managing director of The Jackloc Company, has written to all five Sheffield MPs following the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from an open window on the ninth floor of a hotel in the city. Tragically the child and his family were being housed in the hotel having fled their home country of Afghanistan for the security of the UK.

Mr Collins believes the incident raises important questions about the safety of hotel windows and is calling on the Sheffield MPs, plus his constituency representative Alberto Costa MP, to help focus attention on the issue.

“We have built a growing network of window manufacturers, fitters and restrictor companies who want to see legislative change in public buildings to ensure that stringent safety standards are set – and met – for window safety,” Eris said in the letter. “There is a legislative requirement from the Department of Health, Health Building Note 00-10 Part D, to have window restrictors fitted in health buildings so why not other public risk environments such as hotels and high rise buildings?

“I would greatly value meeting with you to discuss how we can help highlight the need for education regarding window safety/security and, ultimately, legislation to ensure building owners install these critical safety devices.”

Eric has yet to hear back from the MPs (Paul Blomfield, Gill Furniss, Olivia Blake, Louise Haigh, Clive Betts and Alberto Costa).

Figures released by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) some four years ago revealed that more than 4,000 children under the age of 15 were injured falling from windows each year in the UK, and the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) said that one child under the age of five is admitted to hospital every day after tumbling from a building.

US research found that falls from three storeys or above account for 90% of child-fall fatalities, with the average age of childhood falls from windows being five years old.

“These figures demonstrate that there is real need to address this issue,” Eric said. “Both RoSPA and CAPT recommend fitting devices to prevent windows opening too wide. There is already legislation enforcing this in the health and social care sector; window safety from the ground floor up should now be a priority in the hotel industry.

“In most instances 20 minutes of time will provide a robust and secure solution that may save a child’s life.”

The Travelodge Hotel Group has installed Jackloc window restrictors in its 20,000 UK hotel rooms.

To encourage more businesses to follow suit, Jackloc is offering all hotels in the UK complimentary virtual site surveys or a discussion to understand possible solutions.