Meeting your new fire responsibilities

With the enforcement of the Fire Regulatory Reforms it is now up to each company to make sure that it complies with fire regulations. Risk UK spoke to Rob Thilthorpe, Technical Manager BFPSA, about the Order and how it will affect you

Has the new legislation changed everything about fire compliance in the UK?

What we have in place now with the new regulations is not actually all that different to what we had before. The main difference is that the premises that previously had fire certificates have lost that position for it to be replaced with a risk assessment regime. Under the previous regulations (The Fire Precaution in the Workplace Act) premises were already obliged to carry out assessments but this was never truly enforced.

Now this is being properly enforced with each site having to appoint a ‘responsible’ person (who should have been in place under the previous legislation anyway) and this person is responsible for all of the fire precautions at the premises. This person has to carry out the risk assessment, which in most cases, will be fairly simple. In some cases, however this may be quite a difficult task and in this situation it is advisable to bring in an expert to assist with it. As a result of this demand I do expect that there will be a sharp increase in the number of people claiming that they are ‘qualified’ to offer this service!

The selection of the responsible person may present another problem as under the new rules you need to show ‘competence’ of the person who compiled the assessment, which means appointing the “janitor” is not an option!

In terms of the competent person, employed to assist the responsible person we are recommending companies who are members of the trade association with accreditation to third party schemes as referred to in the guidance documents as one of the methods of ensuring this required level of competence.

Would the delegated responsible person be wrong in saying “everything was ok before so let’s just leave everything as it is”?

As long as the person has carried out the risk assessment you could indeed do that. In fact often this is the advice that we are giving people – if you complied with the law before, then you should comply with it now. What each company has to do now is carry out the assessment and prove that they are compliant.

One of the things that we are seeing occur regularly is that people are carrying out their risk assessment and deducing that they do not need as many precautions as they previously thought; perhaps being able to utilise a manual alarm instead of a fully automatic system without really having the competence to fully understand the consequences of the action. On the other hand the more unscrupulous traders will declare that to meet the new regulations you need to update all of the fire precautions at your site, however this is simply not the case.

A big problem with the reform is that it is now down to the end-users to decide whether or not they need certain precautions in place and money could be a big factor in this decision. For example, imagine a large retail premises that states it does not need sprinklers installed or a housing association that decides that it does not have to purchase as many fire extinguishers as previously thought. Both may sound sensible on paper but could lead to catastrophic consequences if there was a fire in the premises. This is why companies need help with this Act. There are lots of other issues to consider too, but on the positive side the RRO is moving fire safety onwards because there is plenty of publicity surrounding the legislation which is raising people’s awareness of measures like adequate evacuation procedures etc.

So there will be cases of people being over-cautious with their protection and there will those who are under-protected?

This will certainly happen but the worst aspect of this would be under-protection. This is where they need to talk to their service provider. As  a possible measure of the success of the order we will be keeping an eye on the DCLG fire statistics; will we see more fires or more deaths from fires after the order came in? The biggest concern with the Act for me is how it will be enforced.

The message is therefore that people do not need to go out and buy lots of new equipment or make swingeing changes to their procedures?

If you complied with the regulations before the reform came in then the likelihood is that you will not need to make many major changes. However, you will need to review your existing risk assessment or carry out a new one to ensure that your fire precautions are up to date. If you were covered by a fire certificate the risk assessment may well identify that your precautions do need updating as the fire certificate was used as “a get of jail free card” if a premises fire precautions were ever challenged.

As I said earlier for most small to medium premises the risk assessment itself is usually quite simple, it is only the selection of any subsequent items such as fire extinguishers or fire alarms, that could need a little help, which is why the guidelines have been produced and BFPSA/FETA members will be able to help as well.

In the run up to the order there were a lot of training courses launched for fire risk assessors and if you are thinking training then you should look for a good accredited course that refers to the whole remit of risk assessment and not just one that concerns itself with specifics.

Most importantly you need to ensure that any equipment you have installed is serviced by competent service companies.

What is your general advice for anyone worried about the reforms?

What I usually advise is that if you complied with the previous regulations then you will comply now. You need to do your risk assessment and understand what you are doing with it. Contractors/manufacturers can help because they have a good understanding of their particular sector, but you need to employ a risk assessor then utilise somebody with a good recognised qualification in fire risk assessment to ensure you have the correct levels of prevention in place.

BFPSA guidelines for compliance

What are the main rules under the order?

You must:

• carry out a fire-risk assessment identifying any possible dangers and risks;

• consider who may be especially at risk;

• get rid of or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably possible and provide general fire precautions to deal with any possible risk left;

• take other measures to make sure there is protection if flammable or explosive materials are used or stored;

• create a plan to deal with any emergency and, in most cases, keep a record of your findings; and

• review your findings when necessary.

Who is responsible for meeting the order?

Under the order, anyone who has control of premises or anyone who has a degree of control over certain areas or systems may be a ‘responsible person’. For example, it could be:

• the employer for those parts of premises staff may go to;

• the managing agent or owner for shared parts of premises or shared fire safety equipment such as fire-warning systems or sprinklers;

• the occupier, such as self-employed people or voluntary organisations if they have any control; or

• any other person who has some control over a part of the premises.

Although in many premises the responsible person will be obvious, there may be times when a number of people have some responsibility.

How do I meet the order?

If you are the responsible person, you must make sure you carry out a fire-risk assessment although you can pass this task to some other competent person. However, you will still be responsible, in law, for meeting the order.

The responsible person, either on their own or with any other responsible person, must as far as is reasonably practical make sure that everyone on the premises, or nearby, can escape safely if there is a fire. This is different from previous legislation in that you must consider everyone who might be on your premises, whether they are employees, visitors or members of the public, for example, at an open-air entertainment venue. You should pay particular attention to people who may have a disability or anyone who may need special help.

The order says that you must manage any fire risk in your premises. Fire authorities no longer issue fire certificates and those previously in force will have no legal status.

You must still carry out a fire-risk assessment but any fire certificates you have may be useful as a good starting point.

If your premises have been designed and built in line with modern building regulations (and are being used in line with those regulations), your structural fire precautions should be acceptable. You will still need to carry out a fire-risk assessment and make sure that you keep up all fire precautions and maintenance routines.

See www.bfpsa.org.uk for more information