Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
INTRODUCTION
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (FSO) became law in England and Wales on 1st October 2006, as a result of which many fundamental changes in fire safety legislation took place.
The Precautions Act 1971 and the Fire Precautions Workplace Regulations 1997 (as amended 1999) were repealed, and replaced along with many other pieces of fire safety legislation with a single order. As a direct result, fire certificates were abolished and ceased to have legal status. Instead, a risk assessment/management based fire safety regime is now employed and is invested in the designated “responsible person”.
The FSO applies to virtually all buildings, places and structures other than individual private dwellings e.g. individual flats in a block or family homes, and requires duty holders to ensure the safety of people in respect of harm caused by fire.
Other places covered by the FSO include common parts of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and common areas of blocks of flats and maisonettes, which has been interpreted as applying to all parts of blocks of flats, other than within individual flats themselves, and is intended to include compartmentation surrounding the flats and the entrance/fire doors. (Technical Bulletin 45 refers).
Under the FSO, anyone who has control of the premises or anyone who has a degree of control over certain areas or systems may be a “responsible person”. This will include:
The employer.
The managing agent or owner for shared parts of the premises or shared fire safety equipment.
The occupier, such as self-employed people or voluntary organisations if they have any control.
Any other person who has some control over a part of the premises.
In most premises, the responsible person will be obvious. However, circumstances will arise, for instance in multiple tenure premises, where a number of people will have an element of responsibility in proportion to their level of control. In these situations, responsible persons should take all reasonable steps to work together.
Parallel fire safety regimes are in place in Scotland under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, and in Northern Ireland under the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010.
FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT
The FSO places the emphasis on risk reduction and fire prevention. Under the FSO, the responsible person is required to carry out a mandatory detailed fire risk assessment identifying the risks and hazards in the premises. The risk assessment must be recorded if there are five or more employees (in common with other risk assessments, formal recording where there are less than five employees, whilst not required by law, is recommended practice).
The responsible person for the premises is also required to:
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 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 where necessary record any findings.
Maintain general fire precautions, and facilities provided for use by fire-fighters.
Keep any findings of the risk assessment under review.
It is essential that a suitable and sufficient risk assessment is carried out by a competent person with relevant fire safety knowledge and experience. In direct response to concerns regarding the competency and professionalism of fire risk assessors, the Fire Risk Assessment Competency Council has been established, consisting of a workstream of the major stakeholders in the fire safety sector as part of the Fire Sector Federation - www.firesectorfederation.co.uk. (Technical Bulletin 38 refers).
Further information can be found in: A Guide to Choosing a Competent Fire Risk Assessor published by the Fire Sector Federation,
Not surprisingly, the recommendations in this document are very much slanted towards companies, including sole traders, which are third party certificated to appropriate schemes operated by Certification Bodies, which have been UKAS accredited to certificate against such schemes. The BAFE SP205 is one such scheme operated by NSI & SSAIB.
Arising from the considerable importance placed on fire risk assessment in conjunction with the FSO, the BSI has published PAS 79:2012 (Publicly Available Specification) Fire Risk Assessment – Guidance and Recommended Methodology. The recommended approach of the PAS to carrying out fire risk assessments is intended to determine the risk-proportionate fire precautions required to protect premises occupants including employees, contractors, visitors and members of the public, and to protect people in the immediate vicinity of the premises.
Basic guidance published by the London Fire Brigade on the five steps to completing a fire risk assessment are summarised below:
STEP 1 - IDENTIFYING THE FIRE HAZARDS
All potential sources of ignition and fuels that are present in the premises should be listed.
Potential sources of ignition include:
Naked flames: cigarettes, matches, pilot lights, gas/oil heaters, gas welding, cookers etc.
Hot surfaces: heaters, engines, boilers, machinery, lighting (for example, halogen lamps), electrical equipment etc.
Hot work: welding, grinding, flame cutting.
Friction: drive belts, worn bearings etc.
Sparks: static electricity, metal impact, grinding, electrical contacts/switches etc.
Arson, for example, deliberate ignition.
Potential sources of fuel include:
Solids: textiles, wood, paper, card, plastics, rubber, PU foam, furniture, fixtures/fittings, packaging, waste materials etc.
Liquids: solvents, paints, varnish, adhesives etc.
Gases: LPG, acetylene.
STEP 2 - IDENTIFYING PEOPLE AT RISK
Fire risk assessment in relation to people is broken down into four main areas. All four of these areas should be considered during the fire safety assessment.
The likely speed of growth and spread of any fire, heat and smoke.
The number of people in the area including visitors and members of the public.
Arrangements for giving warning to people if a fire occurs.
How they will make their escape - this area needs to take into account people's mobility.
STEP 3 - EVALUATING THE RISKS
Once the hazards and the people at risk have been identified, the effect of any particular hazards should be assessed taking account of any existing control measures that are already in place.
When the evaluation is complete a decision should be taken if any further control measures are needed to reduce the risk to safe level.
Further control measures may include:
Reduce the possibility of ignition.
Minimise the potential fuel load in the premises.
Assist people to escape.
Control measures will typically fall into a number of different categories such as:
Fire safety management systems.
Means of escape.
Staff training.
Fire warning systems.
Means of fighting fire.
If issues are identified, an action plan, including timescales and responsibilities, must be included to show how the problem is being addressed.
Modern buildings should already incorporate important control measures to meet the requirements of the Building Regulations, details of which should be included in the fire risk assessment.
A full understanding and evaluation of the existing control measures is essential as this will be the starting point for deciding if any further action is necessary.
All fire safety arrangements should be controlled, monitored and reviewed.
STEP 4 - RECORDING THE FINDINGS
The significant findings of the risk assessment must be recorded, together with details of any people that are at particular risk, where:
A licence under an enactment is in force.
An Alterations Notice under the FSO requires it (this will apply to premises considered by the Fire Authority to be higher than normal risk, or where particularly complicated fire safety arrangements are needed).
Where there are five or more employees.
Most importantly, the record must show whether the existing control measures are adequate and, if not, what further action is required to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
Is should be ensured that any control measures identified or introduced remain effective by testing and maintaining them regularly. For larger premises a simple floor plan should be included in the fire risk assessment to record fire hazards and control measures in a simple format that is easily understood.
STEP 5 - REVIEWING AND REVISING THE RISK ASSESSMENT
Fire risk assessment is a continuous process. It must be monitored and audited as changes to the premises are made. New and existing control measures should be maintained to make sure they are still working effectively.
Examples of changes that might impact on the assessment would include:
A new work process may introduce additional fuels or ignition sources.
Changes to furniture layout or internal partitions could affect the ability for occupants to see a fire and escape in time.
Increasing the number of people may mean that a fire exit is now too small to cope with their escape within a safe period.
Structural alterations.
Significant changes to stock levels
ENFORCEMENT
Fire safety legislation throughout the UK is enforced by Local Fire and Rescue Authorities. Inspections of premises are conducted by Fire Safety Officers, the objective of which is to check that the fire risk assessment and control measures in place are adequate.
In the event that a serious deficiency is identified, an enforcement notice will normally be issued detailing the improvements required and the timescale for compliance. In severe cases, a prohibition notice can be served in which access to the premises is prohibited or restricted.
Each Authority operates its own risk grading system from which fire safety inspections are generated, with an obvious priority on care homes, hotels and other sleeping risks. At the other end of the scale, there will be many small retail and office premises which may never be inspected unless a fire safety complaint or other notification is received.
SURVEY EXPECTATIONS
Where appropriate, all surveys should include enquiries with regards to compliance with the FSO, which should include sight of the risk assessment where a formal record is required. Consultants are expected to make a judgement as to the suitability and sufficiency of the risk assessment, the competency of the person tasked with a carrying it out and the extent to which it is reviewed and revised, which should be reported as required.
In the event of serious deficiencies, a suitable risk improvement, normally in the form of a requirement, should be raised based on the standard available wordings.
For the purposes of illustration, a model fire risk assessment reporting template for simple business premises produced by the FPA is appended to this Technical Bulletin. This is a typical example of many such forms that are publicly available, including those produced in varying formats by some Fire and Rescue Authorities.
FURTHER REFERENCE
Detailed guidance published by HMSO concerning the FSO, spanning a range of occupancies can be found in ATLAS. Extensive guidance is also available at https://www.gov.scot/collections/fire-safety-guidance.
This Technical Bulletin should be cross-referenced with TB 45 Fire Safety in Flats, Houses in Multiple Occupation & High-Rise Residential Buildings as far as fire safety legislation is concerned.
