History of Fire Safety Legislation in The United Kingdom - From 1707 - Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

In 2000, the Government in the form of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (OPDM) set up a review of the fire safety legislation led by the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott MP and found that there some 80 Acts of Parliament or parts of Acts which specified fire safety legislation. In order to revamp the whole thing and bringing it up to date, they decided to take all the odd bits of fire legislation and place it under the umbrella of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which became law in October 2006 - it applies to England and Wales only.

The major change in the legislation was that it brought in the concept of risk assessment rather than prescriptive codes. The Fire Precautions Act had relied on codes and guides for its implementation, the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations had changed that a little by introducing risk assessment as a way of complying, but because the requirement for a fire certificate was never repealed, the guides and codes were still used as a prescriptive means of applying the law. The RR(FS)O took it one step further and implemented fully a risk assessment based regime.

The Fire Safety Order lays out the foundation of the fire risk assessment by saying that the "responsible person" (employer, person in control of the building, or the owner) must take into account for the safety of their employees and anyone else who may lawfully on or near their premises.

The following matters (to protect their employees and anyone else who may lawfully on or near their premises.):

• means of detection and giving warning in case of fire
• the provision of means of escape
• the provision of emergency lighting to escape routes
• means of fighting fire (where necessary)
• the training of staff in fire safety
• the publication of an "emergency plan" & the "fire safety procedures" for a specific building

The Fire Safety Order then tells the "responsible person" (employer, person in control of the building, or the owner) how they must assess these items in order to protect their employees and anyone else who may lawfully on or near their premises.

• carry out a fire risk assessment of your workplace & communal areas in blocks of flats or maisonettes.
• identify the significant findings of the risk assessment and the details of anyone who might be at risk in case of fire. Under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations, these must be recorded if more than five persons are employed
• provide and maintain such fire precautions as are necessary to safeguard those who use your workplace
• provide information, instruction and training to your employees about the fire precautions in your workplace.

The Fire Safety Order 2005 now requires the "responsible person" for each building to carry out or commission from a competent person a Fire Risk Assessment to ensure that the general fire precautions within a particular building are fit for the purposes that that building is being currently put to. So the current use of an old building by today's occupiers and users has to taken into account, in arriving at the appropriate general fire precautions. Thus, both proportionate and appropriate remedial "fire safety" works may be necessary to discharge the "responsible persons" legal duty, to control or reduce the risk to life from fire in a building. (Womack & Bone LLP)