Workplace Safety

On 1st October 2006, the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 came into effect and the following legislation was repealed

• Fire Precautions Act 1971
• Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997
• Fire Precautions (Workplace) (Amendments) Regulations 1999

The Order applies to virtually all premises and covers nearly every type of building, structure and open space but excludes purely domestic premises occupied by a single family group

The main requirements of the Order are that the person responsible for the premises or the activity taking place at the premises is required to:

• Carry out or nominate someone to carry out a fire risk assessment identifying the risks and hazards.
• Consider who may be especially at risk.
• Eliminate or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably practical and provide general fire precautions to deal with any residual risk.
• Take additional measures to ensure fire safety where flammable or explosive materials are used or stored.
• Create a plan to deal with any emergency and, in most cases, document your findings.
• Review the findings as necessary

Who is responsible?

• Under the Order, anyone who has control in a building or anyone who has a degree of control over certain areas or systems may be designated a “responsible person” for example:
• The employer for those parts of premises they have any control over.
• The managing agent or owner for common parts of a premises or common fire safety equipment such as fire warning systems or sprinklers.
• The occupier of premises that are not workplaces such as a chairperson in a parish hall.
• Any other person who has some control over a part of a premises may be the responsible person in so far as that control extends.
• Although in many premises the responsible person will be obvious, there may be occasions when a number of people have some responsibility.

How do I comply with the Order?

If you are the responsible person you must ensure a fire risk assessment is carried out although you can delegate this task to somebody else. However you will still remain responsible, in law, for complying with the Order.

The responsible person, either on their own or in co-operation with any other responsible person must as far as is reasonably practical, ensure that everyone on the premises can escape safely in the event of a fire.

This differs from previous legislation in that there is no longer any distinction made between people who are employees, for example in a place of work and members of the public at an open air entertainment venue. It includes people who may have a disability or anyone who may need special assistance.

Fire certificates will no longer be issued and those previously in force will have no legal status (however, they may be used as a good starting point for a fire risk assessment). The Order requires that the responsible person takes ownership of the management of any risk in their premises.

If your premises have been designed and built, and are being used in accordance with modern Building Regulations then your structural fire precautions should be acceptable. You will still need to carry out a fire risk assessment and ensure that your risk reduction, fire precautions and maintenance routines are sustained.

A set of guides have been produced to assist people responsible for buildings to understand the requirements of the new legislation. There are a number of guides that have been written to address the specific needs and requirements of different types and uses of buildings, they have been written with the lay person in mind and are therefore simple to understand. The guides are available free to download from the link at the bottom of this page or can be purchased from any good bookshop. The following is a list of the guides available.

• Office and Shops - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 815 0
• Factories and Warehouses - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 816 7
• Sleeping Accommodation - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 817 4
• Residential Care Premises - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 818 1
• Educational Premises - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 819 8
• Small and Medium Places of Assembly - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 820 4
• Large Places of Assembly - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 821 1
• Theatres, Cinemas and similar Premises - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 822 8
• Open air Events and Venues - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 823 5
• Health Care Premises - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 824 2
• Transport Premises - ISBN-13:978 1 85112 825 9  

Enforcement of the Order

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue is the primary enforcing agency for all fire safety legislation in non-domestic premises regardless of use within Lincolnshire. If your premises is in another county then the Fire and Rescue Authority for that county will be responsible for enforcement of the order.  We will target our resources and inspections at those premises that present the highest risk. We will continue to address complaints about fire safety, undertake post fire investigations where poor fire safety matters are discovered and may carry out targeted or sampling inspections.

Where breaches of the Order occur we will provide practical advice or, where the risk is serious, formal notices. Except in the most serious cases, we will work in partnership with the responsible person in order to achieve a satisfactory level of fire safety.

Where there is a very serious life risk the we are able to issue a notice preventing the premises being used for certain things or prohibiting all or part of the premises from being used at all.

In all cases there will be a right of appeal, both informally and formally. An informal appeal, normally to the Community Fire Protection Manager, can sometimes identify a different method of complying with the Order. If this is unsuccessful, you can appeal formally to a Magistrate. There will also be the opportunity to agree to go to an informal tribunal to agree a remedy where a notice relates to technical issues.

The Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Enforcement Policy is availabe in the “Downloads” tab.

Compliance self-assessment

To help you ensure your premises comply with the new legislation, an online self-assessment form is available. This consists of a series of fire-safety related questions which should take no more than ten minutes to complete. At the end of the process, you will have the option to view your results and any suggestions for improvement that may be applicable by means of an online form which you can print or save for future reference. You can also send a copy of your self assessment to us with any questions you may have and one of our team will be pleased to assist where possible.