NEED FOR A FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Looking firstly at the legal requirement...
We are dealing with the requirements of the Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 1541 'The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005' Within which Article 9 requires the Responsible Person (I will explore this term below) to undertake...
'A Risk assessment - 9. —(1) The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on him by or under this Order.
Overview
A Fire Risk Assessment must be undertaken for each commercial building.
1> These fire laws place an increasing emphasis on your legal duty to carry out formal fire risk assessments. The Fire Brigade will have the power to revoke fire safety certificates, and in the event of a serious fire incident, prosecution proceedings could be brought against those found to have carried out an insufficient Fire Risk Assessment.
2> The requirements of the assessment are to assess a broad range of risk factors including sources of ignition, means of escape, warning systems, risk to persons, co-operation with neighbours, risks to the fire services, etc.
3> The Order introduces the term "responsible person” In this Order "responsible person" means:
(a) In relation to a workplace, the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under his control;
OR
(b) In relation to any premises not falling within the statement in (a) then,
(i) the person who has control of the premises (as occupier or otherwise) in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, business or other undertaking (for profit or not); or
(ii) the owner, where the person in control of the premises does not have control in connection with the carrying on by that person of a trade, business or other undertaking
So as the ‘employer’, Landlords, Directors, Lead Occupiers, and Managers must ensure that Fire Risk Assessments are as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible, in order to prevent incidents occurring.
This can be done by appointing a Competent Person.
Competent Person
Article 18 of the order states that The Responsible Person must...
appoint one or more Competent Persons to assist him in undertaking the preventive and protective measures, ie the Fire Risk Assessment.
It continues in section 18 to explain that A Competent Person shall possess 'sufficient training, knowledge, experience and other attributes to enable him/her to properly implement the measures as necessary...
it raises that civil or criminal liability may arise from incompetence and a 'due diligence' defence is not available.
Duty of Care
Proceedings can be carried against the Responsible Person where a duty of care is deemed to be owed.
A duty of care exists by occupiers of premises who take responsibility for those who may foreseeable be affected by their actions or omissions. This will include consideration of those people that the occupier employs and any lawful visitors to the building ie in a commercial building this could include members of the public, people delivering goods or contractors working on site. This consideration will involve how these people maybe affected by fire.
Penalties for failure to comply
- Enforcements notices by local authorities
- Prohibition notices by local authorities
- Serious enough to warrant £5000 or 2 years imprisonment or both.
- Normally magistrates will deal these with however should the seriousness warrant it, can be referred to crown court where penalties can be more severe.