The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 did away with the need for fire certificates and aimed to bring together disparate fire legislation into a single risk based approach.

The responsible person (the employer or controller of premises) is required to:

• Draw up a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment and eliminate or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably practical. Assessments must take account of particular persons or groups at risk (e.g. young people people, people working in close proximity to fire hazards), site layout, physical and chemical agents on site, dangerous substances, work equipment, the organisation of processes and activities and safety training provided. For further details on drawing up a Fire Risk Assessment click here.
• Provide general fire precautions to deal with any residual risk. For further details on general fire precautions click here.
• Make appropriate fire safety arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventative and protective measures identified by the fire risk assessment and under the genral fire precautions. Nominate a sufficient number of appropriately trained competent persons to assist with these. Where there are 5 or more employees the arrangements must be in writing.
• Establish emergency procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger. The responsible person should nominate a sufficient number of appropriately trained competent persons to assist with emergency procedures. Any necessary contacts with the external emergency services must be arranged and fire instructions should be clearly displayed.
• Provide employees and other people with comprehensible and relevant information on fire safety measures in the workplace. Employees must also be provided with appropriate and adequate safety training.
• Everything provided under the Order must be maintained and kept in good repair.
• Where there is shared responsibility for a premises (e.g. a resident employer and an owner,) measures must be coordinated and each person must do what they can to meet the requirements of the Order as it relates to matters under their control. It may also be necessary to coordinate with others e.g. other employers.

Think about: click here for a list of things you might want to think about to aid your compliance with the Order.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has produced a excellent and very detailed series of guides to assist compliance with the Fire Safety Order. The series includes dedicated guides for offices and shops, small and medium places of assembly and open air events, amongst others. Download your free copies here

Click here for Fire Gateway - an excellent guidance site for fire safety in the workplace.

For the full text of the Fire Safety Order click here

For further information on the application of the Order to outdoor events including fire precautions, fire arrangements and reducing the risks from fire you can order a copy of my book 'Health and Safety at Outdoor Community Events' here. Alternatively, an order form can be downloaded here.

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