Fire Safety Law – The Facts
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
This new legislation came into force on 1st October 2006 and is the biggest single change to fire safety legislation in over 35 years. Fundamental to this new legislation is the requirement to carry out a ‘Fire Risk Assessment’ to help identify and control all fire related risks and thereby ensure the safety of all persons within the premises. This duty is now extended to include any non-employees such as members of the public, visitors, contractors etc.
Who Should Carry Out The Assessment?
The ‘Responsible Person’ is the person who has control over the premises (or part of the premises i.e. as in multi-occupied buildings). By law this person will need to ensure compliance and ensure a fire risk assessment is carried out by a ‘Competent Person’. In most cases this will involve seeking professional assistance from an external source.
For more information on fire risk assessment please follow the link:
Fire Risk Assessment
Enforcement
The above legislation is enforced by the Fire Authority, who are taking a pro-active stance with regard to securing compliance. Serious breaches may result in prosecution action being brought against those responsible.
General Fire Safety Management
A properly completed fire risk assessment is not in itself considered sufficient to comply with all aspects of current fire legislation and best practice. In addition it is essential that the following measures are also addressed:
- A Company Specific Fire Safety Policy.
- Adequate and pro-active fire safety maintenance arrangements.
- Suitable record keeping arrangements
- A properly formulated ‘Fire Procedure’
- Suitable and sufficient fire training for relevant persons.
