Fire

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force in 2006. It applies risk assessment principles and establishes a single fire safety regime for all workplaces and other non-domestic premises. It applies to England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have devolved responsibility for fire safety law. The Order divides into Articles, rather than regulations, but the basic hierarchy is similar to other health and safety law.

Change in law regarding the self-employed

The Order applies to most “non-domestic premises”, including the voluntary sector and self-employed people with premises separate from their homes. Workplaces not covered are offshore installations, ships, fields, woods or other land in agriculture away from buildings, aircraft, locomotive or rolling stock, mines and boreholes.

Responsibility for complying with the Order rests with the “responsible person”, defined in Article 3. 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 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.

General fire precautions

The Order requires the responsible person to take general fire precautions for the safety of employees and other “relevant persons”, such as members of the public, who are lawfully on the premises or in the vicinity (Article 8).

These measures are set out in Article 5 and cover:

• reducing the risk of fire on the premises and the risk of the spread of fire;

• identifying the means of escape;

• making sure the means of escape can be safely and effectively used;

• making sure the premises are equipped with appropriate firefighting equipment and with fire detectors and alarms;

• making sure there are means for detecting fire and for giving warning in case of fire; and arrangements for action to be taken in the event of fire, including the instruction and training of employees, and mitigating the effects of the fire.

The Order requires fire precautions to be put in place “where necessary” and to the extent that it is reasonably practicable.

Risk assessment

Under Article 9, the responsible person must make a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risk of (and from) fire in the workplace. The risk assessment must pay special attention to dangerous substances and to people who may be especially at risk, such as young and disabled people. The risk assessment and the preventive and protective measures identified as being necessary must be recorded where an employer has more than five employees.

Preventive and protection measures

Article 10 requires the responsible person to follow a hierarchy of preventive and protection measures, as set out in Schedule 1, Part 3.

The principles are:

• avoiding risks;

• evaluating the risks which cannot be avoided;

• combating the risks at source;

• adapting to technical progress;

• replacing the dangerous with the non-dangerous or less dangerous;

• developing a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology, organisation of work and the influence of factors relating to the working environment;

• giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures; and

• giving appropriate instructions to employees.

Article 13 requires the responsible person to ensure that the workplace is equipped with appropriate firefighting equipment and with fire detectors and alarms.

The responsible person must also:

• take measures for firefighting in the premises (adapted to the nature of the activities carried on there and the size of the undertaking and of the premises concerned);

• nominate competent persons to implement those measures and ensure that the number of such persons, their training and the equipment available to them are adequate, taking into account the size of, and the specific hazards involved in, the premises; and

• arrange any necessary contacts with external emergency services, particularly as regards firefighting, rescue work, first-aid and emergency medical care.

Article 14 imposes duties regarding emergency routes and exits and Article 15 concerns procedures to deal with “serious and imminent danger”. These include safety drills and evacuation procedures.

Article 18 requires the responsible person to appoint competent persons to help implement the preventive and protective measures. A competent person is defined as someone who “has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to assist in undertaking the preventive and protective measures”.

The competent person must be given adequate means and “the time available for them to fulfil their functions”. The responsible person must appoint a competent employee in preference to an outside person, such as a contractor.

Information and training

Under Article 19, the responsible person must provide “comprehensible and relevant information” to employees arising from the risk assessment, such as the protection measures, emergency procedures and about dangerous substances on the premises.

Employees must also receive adequate fire safety training at their induction and whenever they are exposed to new or increased risks. It should be “repeated periodically” and “take place during working hours”.

The Fire Order also imposes duties on employees, under Article 23. These include taking reasonable care for their own safety and that of other people, to cooperate with the employer’s fire procedures, to report matters of serious and imminent danger and any shortcomings in the protection arrangements.

Enforcement

The enforcing authority is defined in Article 25. In most cases, this is the local fire and rescue authority, although the HSE has responsibility for construction sites and for ships under construction or repair, for example.

Sports grounds come under the local authority and Crown properties are covered by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Fire Services. The enforcing authority can serve “alterations notices” where it believes premises constitute a serious risk (Article 29). It can also serve enforcement and prohibition notices (Articles 30 and 31).

Article 41 imposes the duty to consult with employees and their representatives, and amended the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 (see Chapter 4).

Businesses no longer need a fire certificate, but fire and rescue authorities can still inspect premises and ensure that adequate fire precautions are in place.