TEMPERATURE control valves should be fitted to all baths used by old people in care, a fatal accident inquiry in Falkirk heard yesterday.

The thermostats would stop a repeat of the accident in which Mr Harry Brown was scalded, the inquiry heard.

Mr Brown, 91, died from heart failure six days after being found scalded in a bath at Norwood residential home in Falkirk.

Ms Annabell Fowles, solicitor for Falkirk Council, said the law demanded that temperature control valves were fitted to bath taps in nursing homes. However, there was no legal requirement for residential homes to fit them.

Mr Alistair Mackie, lawyer for the Norwood home's owners, Mr and Mrs Busgeeth, said that, although the pathologists had said the accident could have ''precipitated'' Mr Brown's death, there had been no evidence that it ''probably'' caused the death.

Depute fiscal Sarah Livingstone said the report of the pathologist who carried out the post- mortem examination listed scalding as a contributory cause.

Sheriff Keane said he would give a written judgment at a later date.