Fire Risk Legislation

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force for England and Wales on 1st October 2006.

The order will repeal the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and revoke the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997, also removing the existing requirement for fire certificates.

All premises which employ five or more persons will be required to have a written current Fire Risk Assessment.

If you employ less than five persons you still have to carry out a Fire Risk Assessment but it need not be written down.

The legislation requires that you keep your Fire Risk Assessment in a safe and secure location to use as a management tool for the control of fire risks within your business.

Although everyone who enters your business premises including employees, customers, contractors or other visitors should ensure fire safety, there is now a requirement to have a designated 'Responsible Person' who must arrange for a Fire Risk Assessment.

The 'Responsible Person' could be one of the following:

• Employer with control of a workplace.
• Person with overall management of a building (e.g. owner or managing agent of premises which are shared between a number of businesses).
• Occupier of a premises.
• Owner of a premises (e.g. empty buildings).

The new fire regulations now cover premises that were not included in previous fire legislation.

A sample of premises covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 are as follows:

• Offices and shops (including shopping centres).
• Factories and warehouses.
• Sleeping accommodation (e.g. hotels, common areas of flats/ maisonettes/ holiday chalets and parks).
• Residential care premises (e.g. residential and care homes, including care homes with nursing).
• Educational premises (e.g. schools, universities, academies, crèches, adult education and outdoor education centres).
• Places of assembly (e.g. public houses, clubs, restaurants, libraries, museums, village halls, churches, sports stadiums, leisure centres, swimming pools).
• Outdoor events (e.g. music concerts, sporting events, firework displays and zoos).
• Health care premises (e.g. hospitals and medical centres).
• Transport premises and facilities (e.g. train, bus, coach and airport transportation terminals).

Monitoring and enforcement of business compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 will be conducted by your local Fire and Rescue Service via selective inspection of premises.

In the event of non-compliance enforcement will take the form of:

• Notification of deficiencies.
• An enforcement notice.
• An alterations notice.
• A prohibition notice.