Since March this year, owners of Chinese restaurants and bars in Edinburgh have been worried about frequent fire safety inspections without prior notice during business time carried out by the local Fire and Rescue Service. On 3 April, Ms. Li Libei, the Acting Consul General of the P.R. China in Edinburgh, met with Mr. Tom McGrath and Tom Cane from Community Safety of Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service and expressed the concerns over the above -mentioned issue.

        Ms. Li introduced the impact of frequent fire safety inspections on the Chinese restaurants and bars in Edinburgh since spring this year, which, to some extent, upsets the Chinese communities.

        Mr. McGrath expressed his appreciation to Ms. Li's introduction and indicated that fire safety inspection by no means targeted against the Chinese communities, yet communication difficulties do exist in daily inspection because of language barriers or culture differences at times. The Service hopes that the Consulate General will provide assistance in setting up communication with the Chinese Communities.

        Through negotiation, the Consulate General agreed on co-ordinating owners of Chinese restaurants and bars in Edinburgh to attend the fire safety lecture in the Service where site instruction will be given and fire precaution operation demonstrated. The Consulate General also agreed to assist the Service on publicizing the fire safety information in local Chinese weekend schools for the parents of schoolchildren. And the Service will join the Consulate General in consular protection talks held at universities in Edinburgh by introducing general knowledge of fire safety, precaution measures and obligations on student tenants living in a House in Multiple Occupancy as well as obligations on landlords.