Introduction

          Each year people die or are seriously injured as a result of fires at work. Besides loss of life, fire costs UK business millions of pounds, from damage to property, loss of business, fines, compensation claims and insurance premiums.

          Many fires can be avoided by taking fire precautions. If a fire does break out, the effects can be minimised by having effective controls and procedures in place.

          In England, Scotland and Wales, rules introduced in October 2006 replaced most existing fire safety legislation. Fire certificates are no longer required, and the emphasis is on preventing fires and reducing risk. These rules come into force in Northern Ireland in 2009.

          Anyone who has some control over premises must take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire. The regulations apply to all non-domestic premises.

Who is responsible for fire safety?

          Everyone who enters your business premises - employees, customers, contractors or other visitors - should ensure fire safety. However, you must now have a legally-designated 'responsible person' who must arrange for a risk assessment, identify any possible fire risks and deal with them. See the page in this guide on the duties of the 'responsible person'. This measure comes into force in Northern Ireland in 2009.

         It will usually be obvious who the responsible person is, although sometimes several people will share the responsibility - for example in shared premises or larger businesses. The responsible person will be someone who has control over premises, or over some areas, departments or systems. For example, it could be:

          - the owner or manager of a business,

          - the owner or managing agent of premises which are shared between a number of businesses individuals within a multiple-occupancy building, such as self-employed people or voluntary organisations if they control someone within the premise.

          You should establish who the responsible person is within your business or premises. If it is not clear, then your local fire authority will decide who should be responsible.

          Where there is more than one person responsible for a premises they are expected to:

          - co-operate with the other responsible persons so far as is necessary to comply with the regulations,

          - co-ordinate with the other responsible persons measures required to comply with the regulations.

          - share information with each other.

Duties of the 'responsible person'

          The 'responsible person' is someone who has control, or a degree of control, over premises or fire-prevention systems within premises. If you are the responsible person, you must make sure that everyone who uses your premises can escape if there is a fire. This comes into force in Northern Ireland in 2009.

          The people you need to think about include anyone who might be on your premises, including employees, visitors or members of the public. You need to pay particular attention to those who may need special help, such as elderly or disabled people or children.

          You must:

          - carry out a fire-risk assessment and identify possible dangers and risks,

          - think about who might be particularly at risk - you may have disabled employees, or people who work with hazardous chemicals,

          - get rid of the risk from fire, as far as reasonably possible,

          - put in place fire precautions to deal with any risks that remain,

          - make sure there is protection if you use or store flammable or explosive materials,

          - have a plan to deal with emergencies.

          If you are the responsible person, you must make sure that the fire-risk assessment is carried out. You can appoint some other competent person to do the actual assessment, but you are still responsible in law.

          In many premises achieving fire safety is likely to be a matter of common sense providing the responsible person makes enough time available to go through all the necessary steps.

          The enforcing authority, which is usually the local fire authority, must be satisfied with your safety measures. If not, they will tell you what you need to do. If they find major problems they can restrict the use of your premises or close them altogether until you deal with any problems they raise.

Fire-risk assessment

          The 'responsible person' must manage any fire risk on your premises, and to do this they need to carry out a fire-risk assessment. This comes into force in Northern Ireland in 2009.

          The recommended way to carry out a risk assessment is to follow a step-by-step process.

          Hazards include:

          - anything that can start a fire, such as naked flames, heaters or commercial processes such as cookers or hot-air dryers,

          - anything that can burn in a fire, including piles of waste, display materials, textiles or other flammable products,

          - oxygen sources such as air conditioning, medical products or commercial oxygen supplies which might intensify a fire.

          You should:

          - where possible, get rid of the fire hazards you identified - eg remove build-ups of waste - and reduce any hazards you can't remove entirely,

          - replace highly flammable materials with less flammable ones keep anything that can start a fire away from flammable materials ,

          - have a safe-smoking policy for employees or customers who want to smoke in a designated area near your premises (a ban on smoking within enclosed spaces is now in effect) - read about the smoking ban in England on the Smokefree England website- Opens in a new window.

          Once you've reduced the risk as far as practical, you need to look at any risk that can't be removed and decide what fire safety measures to provide.