Fire Decisions Limited
Specialising in all aspects of fire safety related issues
Fire Door propped open with a Fire Extinguisher
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the main fire safety legislation in England and Wales and this came into force on 1st October 2006.
The Fire Safety Order applies to virtually all buildings, places and structures other than individual private dwellings e.g. individual flats in a block or family homes.
If you own, manage or operate a business, you will need to comply with fire safety law. It is your responsibility to make sure your workplace reaches the required standard and employees are provided with adequate fire safety training.
As the legislation applies to most premises, if you are in charge of a building such as a village hall, youth association building and even the common areas of flats, such as the staircase or corridors between flats, then you also have to comply with the legislation.
It is a criminal offence not to comply with the order.
A. Straight answer is no you don’t! You are responsible for making sure your premises is safe. You would need to down load the relevant guide, read through it. If you decided you had the sufficient skills, complete your own risk assessment, checking for ignition sources, checking for example the travel distances and exit widths (you might need to work out the occupancy factors given). Then if necessary record the significant findings and develop an action plan.
Or you can appoint somebody to assist you, like our company.
It’s probably a bit like completing your own accounts, you can do it yourself, but sometime its easier and better to call in an expert to help you.
A. The Order applies to virtually all buildings, places and structures other than individual private dwellings e.g. individual flats in a block or family homes. For example, it applies to:
A. The Fire Safety Order places the emphasis on risk reduction and fire prevention. Under the Order the person, known as “the responsible person”, are required to:
A. The findings of the risk assessment, including the significant findings, measures taken, or to be taken, to ensure general fire safety and any persons identified as being especially at risk must be recorded where:
However, if the above does not apply, whilst you do not have to by law record your risk assessment, in the event of a fire, an insurance company might ask how else you carried out your assessment. Having a record of it will help you.
A. In a workplace, this is the employer and any other person who may have control of any part of the premises, for example, the occupier or owner.
In all other premises the person or people in control of the premises will be responsible. If there is more than one responsible person in any type of premises, all must take all reasonable steps to work with each other.
It should be noted however, that in the case of a prosecution for an offence under The Fire Safety Order, as well as the responsible person, a director, manager, company secretary or similar officer of the company could be prosecuted as well as, or instead of, if the offence had been committed with that person’s consent, connivance, or as a result of negligence.
A. Any person (including the responsible person) who is lawfully on the premises and any person in the vicinity of the premises who may be affected by a fire on the premises.
This means, for example, that if you store substances that are explosive when exposed to fire you may need to consider the occupants of nearby buildings, if they could be affected by an explosion or by any exclusion zone or cordon set up by the fire brigade because of the danger of explosion.
A. The Fire Safety Order covers fire safety arrangements. As the responsible person, you must think about this, given the size of your operation. Areas to think about include the nature of your activities, how you organise and manage fire safety. Where you employ 5 or more people or a licence is in force, then you must record these arrangements.
A. Wrong, in May 2014, the then fire minister confirmed that the Fire Safety Order “applies to all those offering accommodation to paying guests irrespective of the business model being used to market the accommodation”.
A. Yes, under the Fire Safety Order, you must not employ a young person (defined as someone under the age of 18) unless you make, or review your fire risk assessment. You must take into account certain matters as well and these are detailed in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Fire Safety Order.
A. This will depend upon the terms of the lease. The Fire Safety Order applies to any person who has, to any extent, control of a premises. You should ensure your tenants are aware of the Fire Safety Order and co-operate with them to ensure compliance.
In multi-occupied buildings, the owner may have a responsibility in respect of common parts of the building and must prepare a fire risk assessment for those areas.
A. Aside from the information provided on this website, the Government have published a number of guidance documents for different types of premises.
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