What are fire safety laws in the workplace?

Action from fire and rescue authorities

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 was brought in October 2006. This legislation was designed to reduce the risk of fire in non-domestic buildings. It also puts responsibility on a certain set of people to ensure that their premises or workplace is operating at a required standard. Another requirement of the regulation is for these ‘responsible people’ to ensure that employees are provided with the correct amount of fire safety training.

Action can be taken from the fire authorities if your business is found not to be compliant with the regulations. There are three types of notice that you may receive following a failed inspection; alterations notice (identified high safety risks), enforcement notice (identified serious risk that’s not being managed) and prohibition notice (where your premises needs to be prohibited or restricted). You could also receive a penalty with minor penalties up to £5,000 and major penalties carrying an unlimited fine and up to 2 years in prison.

It should be noted that you can appeal these decisions if you disagree.

Operating at the required standard

In order to operate at the required standard, you must have a responsible person in place, regularly check fire equipment, carry out fire risk assessments and implement appropriate training.

Who is responsible?

You’re responsible for fire safety in business or other non-domestic premises if you’re:

• An employer
• The owner
• The landlord
• An occupier
• Anyone else with control of the premises, for example, a facilities manager, building manager, managing agent or risk assessor.

It is the duty of these people to:

• Carry out regular fire risk assessments
• Tell staff about risks identified
• Put in place and maintain appropriate fire safety measures
• Plan for an emergency

Checking your equipment

As well as having a fire detection and warning system in place, the equipment must also be checked regularly. This includes; checking fire alarms and emergency lighting, recording faults in systems, ensuring escape routes are clear, checking floors are in good condition and not hazardous. In addition to these checks, fire escapes should be opened easily, automatic fire doors should close correctly and fire exit signs must be clearly visible and directing people to the right place.

Regular fire risk assessments must also take place which involves evaluating the hazard of a fire in the workplace. These should then be recorded if you have five or more employees or your business has a licence under enactment.

Training employees

When new employees start the business, they must be informed of the fire drill and all employees should be updated with any new fire risks. At least one fire drill should be carried out annually and the results recorded on this.

Responsible people should be trained so that they can fully carry out their duties. They may benefit from additional training too such as fire warden training, the use of fire extinguishers and breathing apparatus training.