There are the equivalent of four fires a day in schools and other educational establishments every year.

Proposed changes to guidance governing how schools are built would alarmingly undermine efforts to reduce the risk of fire, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned.

The redrafting of a document known as BB100 replaces a government commitment, “that it is now our expectation that all new schools will have sprinklers fitted” with a sentence stating the opposite: “The Building Regulations do not require the installation of fire sprinkler suppression systems in school buildings for life safety and therefore BB 100 no longer includes an expectation that most new school buildings will be fitted with them.