Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety) 2005 – Brief Guide

This Order came into force on 1 October 2006. It replaces over a hundred pieces of fire safety legislation including the Fire Precautions Act and the Workplace (Fire Safety) Regulations. Fire Certificates will no longer be issued or enforced. It places a duty on the ‘responsible person’ to ensure, ‘as far as is reasonably practical’ the safety of his employees and to take such general fire precautions as may be reasonably required to ensure that the premises are safe [i.e. for non-employees]. Under the Order, there is a requirement to carry out and continually update an assessment of the risk of fire to people in and around the premises/building, and to assess and maintain the measures to reduce those risks to an acceptable level. Where there are five or more employees, the risk assessment must be recorded. A Fire Risk Assessment should be carried out: 1. On completion of the building fit out and preferably before first occupation of the building. 2. Regularly, particularly where any changes occur such as changes in the use of the building, the number or nature of occupants, or building works. 3. We would recommend that a fire risk assessment is carried out annually. Other legal duties include: 1. A person must be nominated for any special role identified in an emergency plan. 2. Employees must be consulted about nominations to perform special roles, and about any proposals for improving the fire precautions. 3. Other employers in the building must be informed about any significant risks, which might affect the safety of their employees, and there must be co-operation with them in measures to reduce the risk. 4. Those having control over the workplace have a responsibility to ensure compliance with the regulations in those parts of the building over which they have control. 5. A suitable and readily available method of calling the emergency services must be established. 6. Employees are required to co-operate in ensuring that the workplace is safe from fire. The order also adopts ‘Principles of Prevention’. These include: • Avoiding risks; • Evaluating the risks which cannot be avoided; • Combating the risks at source; • Adapting to technical progress; • Replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or less dangerous [particularly with respect to hazardous substances]; • Developing a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology, organisation of work and the influence of factors relating to the working environment; • Giving appropriate instructions to employees. For more information on the RRO please follow the links below to the Communities and Local Government website. Please note that as departments change names and as we under the new Government the link may change, if this is the case then we suggest that you search for RRO (Fire Safety) 2005 in Google, Yahoo, Bing or the other search engines. http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/regulatoryreformfire This article is a brief overview of the nature of the act and does not constitute guidance for any particular site, if you require advice and support on this subject then please contact our office and we will happy to offer you our services for your fire risk assessment.

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