Regulatory reform paves way for greater fire prevention

Part of the suite of guidance manuals in support of the RRO. Photo: COI

The most significant change being introduced by the new legislation will be placing the onus on the responsible person.

As part of the Government's commitment to reduce death, injury and damage caused by fire, the new law will apply to most places except private dwellings.  The main emphasis of the reform is to move towards fire prevention, the reform designed to make the law easier to understand and to comply with. Separate reforms are being made in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

The Regulatory Reform Safety Order (RRFSO) consolidates necessary requirements from current laws into one regime.  This will make the law far more coherent and accessible, and enable businesses to adopt the new legislation after a period of familiarisation through a series of eleven guides.

These guides aim to make it easy for someone with little formal training or experience to comply with the new regulations.  The guides can be downloaded free from http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/aboutguides/. The website allows paper copies to be ordered.  A series of seminars were also held earlier this year on what the RRO will mean to business.  The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 still apply and are still enforceable until the RRFSO becomes law. 

The reformed law will apply to employers, the voluntary sector and self-employed people with premises separate from their homes. Currently, as most premises are required to be risk assessed by their owner, little will change for those who are already complying with existing regulations. 

Under the RRFSO the ‘responsible person’ for each premises will be required to carry out an assessment of the risks of fire and take steps to reduce or remove the risk, and this will need to be kept under regular review.  The responsible person is whoever has a degree of control of the premises for example, the owner, occupier, landlord and others.

Enforcement for the RRFSO will, in most cases, be done by  the local fire and rescue authority.  If they are not satisfied that the fire precautions are adequate they will advise the responsible person where the shortcomings are and what needs to be done to comply with the law.  The enforcing authorities will try to resolve any problems with through discussion, but the new law now provides them with powers to serve an enforcement notice, requiring responsible persons to take action.  In very serious cases they can restrict or prohibit the use of the premises until serious dangers have been addressed.  A new type of notice, called an alterations notice, can be served if the premises are considered to be high risk after any changes to its usage or fire safety provisions.  The enforcing authority would have to be informed if any changes were proposed.

For further information please contact CLG at fire.safetyreform@communities.gov.uk or visit the website at http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/.