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The Order, made under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 replaces many of the references to fire safety in other legislation such as the Fire Precautions Act, Licensing Act and Housing Acts with a simple, single Order. It requires any person who exercises some level of control in premises to take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and ensure occupants can safely escape if a fire does occur.
In such premises achieving fire safety is often a matter of common sense but you will have to ensure that sufficient time is put aside to work through the necessary steps. In more complicated premises or those with a high life risk more expert help may be required.
Where does it apply?
The Order applies to virtually all premises and covers nearly every type of building, structure and open space.
For example:
- Offices and shops
- Premises that provide care
- Community halls
- The common areas of houses in multiple occupation including common fire warning systems etc.
- Pubs, clubs and restaurants
- Schools
- Tents and marquees
- Hotels and hostels
- Factories and warehouses
But excluding:
- Purely domestic premises occupied by a single family group
What are the main requirements of the Order?
The responsible person is required to:
- Carry out or nominate someone to carry out a fire risk assessment identifying the risks and hazards.
- Consider who may be especially at risk.
- Eliminate or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably practical and provide general fire precautions to deal with any residual risk.
- Take additional measures to ensure fire safety where flammable or explosive materials are used or stored.
- Create a plan to deal with any emergency and, in most cases, document your findings.
- Review the findings as necessary
Getting help and additional guidance
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) provides additional information and has produced a series of guides in order to assist those preparing fire risk assessments; these will give detailed information on risk assessments and other issues.
The following is a list of the eleven planned RRO guides:
- Offices and Shops
- Premises providing Sleeping Accommodation
- Residential Care
- Small and Medium Places of Assembly
- Large Places of Assembly
- Factories and Warehouses
- Theatres and Cinemas
- Educational Premises
- Healthcare Premises (responsibility of the Department of Health)
- Transport Premises and Facilities
- Open Air Events
Risk assessment example
The following provides an example of a typical risk assessment to help you understand the process that should be followed. The example refers to the five steps covered in the "Carrying out a risk assessment" section. If you're unclear about any aspect of performing risk assessment, contact your local Fire & Rescue Service who will be able to offer guidance.
 Make a simple, single line drawing of the premises drawn roughly to scale/proportion which shows any relevant structural features, such as staircases and the use of particular areas e.g. production, storage, sleeping areas.
The plan should indicate any hazards (Step 1) and those persons at significant risk (Step 2). It should also identify where combustible material and ignition sources are close together - a simple noughts and crosses system can be used; circles for combustible materials and crosses for ignition sources.
The action taken should be common sense and in the main, inexpensive (Step 3). Should any requirements prove to be expensive, it may be acceptable to put interim measures in place until they can be implemented. This will only be acceptable if there is no serious risk to people.
Forming an emergency plan and assessing training, instruction or recording requirements should then take place (Step 4).
Finally, a system of regular reviews should be determined (Step 5).
 Your legal obligations
As the nominated "responsible person", you will need to carry out a number of steps to ensure that your premises is fully compliant with the new Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This section includes an online form to help you assess how compliant your premises are currently.
- Who is responsible?
- How do I comply with the Order?
- Enforcement of the Order
- Compliance self-assessment
Who is responsible?
Under the Order, anyone who has control in a building or anyone who has a degree of control over certain areas or systems may be designated a "responsible person" for example:
- The employer for those parts of premises they have any control over.
- The managing agent or owner for common parts of a premises or common fire safety equipment such as fire warning systems or sprinklers.
- The occupier of premises that are not workplaces such as a chairperson in a parish hall.
- Any other person who has some control over a part of a premises may be the responsible person in so far as that control extends.
Although in many premises the responsible person will be obvious, there may be occasions when a number of people have some responsibility.
How do I comply with the Order?
If you are the responsible person you must ensure a fire risk assessment is carried out although you can delegate this task to somebody else. However you will still remain responsible, in law, for complying with the Order.
The responsible person, either on their own or in co-operation with any other responsible person must as far as is reasonably practical, ensure that everyone on the premises can escape safely in the event of a fire.
This differs from previous legislation in that there is no longer any distinction made between people who are employees, for example in a place of work and members of the public at an open air entertainment venue. It includes people who may have a disability or anyone who may need special assistance.
Fire certificates will no longer be issued and those previously in force will have no legal status (however, they may be used as a good starting point for a fire risk assessment). The Order requires that the responsible person takes ownership of the management of any risk in their premises.
If your premises have been designed and built, and are being used in accordance with modern Building Regulations then your structural fire precautions should be acceptable. You will still need to carry out a fire risk assessment and ensure that your risk reduction, fire precautions and maintenance routines are sustained.
Enforcement of the Order
Fire authorities will be the primary enforcing agency for all fire safety legislation in non-domestic premises, regardless of use. They will target their resources and inspections at those premises that present the highest risk. All fire authorities will continue to address complaints about fire safety, undertake post fire investigations where poor fire safety matters are discovered and may carry out targeted or sampling inspections.
Where breaches of the Order occur the fire authority will provide practical advice or, where the risk is serious, formal notices. Except in the most serious cases, the fire authority will work in partnership with the responsible person in order to achieve a satisfactory level of fire safety.
Where there is a very serious life risk the fire authority is able to issue a notice preventing the premises being used for certain things, (such as sleeping) or prohibiting all or part of the premises being used at all.
In all cases there will be a right of appeal, both informally and formally. An informal appeal, normally to a more experienced fire safety manager, can sometimes identify a different method of complying with the Order. If this is unsuccessful, you can appeal formally to a Magistrate. There will also be the opportunity to agree to go to an informal tribunal to agree a remedy where a notice relates to technical issues.
Compliance self-assessment
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires any person who exercises some level of control in a premises to take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and ensure occupants can safely escape if a fire does occur. In such premises achieving fire safety is often a matter of common sense but you will have to ensure that sufficient time is put aside to work through the necessary steps.
Risk assessments
If you are not fully convergent with any of these requirements we would highly recommend you employ a Fully Qualified Fire Risk Assessor.
Ensuring an assessment of the fire risks within your premises has been carried out is a key part of the "responsible person's" role. Performing a thorough risk assessment and acting on your findings will help to reduce risks, ensure compliance with legislation and could save lives.
The 5 steps of a risk assessment
The following is a summary of the 5 steps you will need to go through to carry out a fire risk assessment within your premises:
Step 1 - Identify fire hazards
• Sources of ignition
• Sources of fuel
Step 2 - Identify people especially at risk
• Members of staff
• People not familiar with the premises
• People working alone
Step 3 - Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risks
• Measures to prevent fires
• Measures to protect people from fire
Step 4 - Record, plan, instruct, inform and train
• Record significant findings and actions taken
• Prepare an emergency plan
• Inform relevant people, provide instruction, co-operate and co-ordinate with others
• Provide training
Step 5 - Review
• Keep assessment under review
• Revise where necessary
Steps 1-3: Identifying & evaluating risks
The following provides additional guidance on completing the first three steps of your risk assessment - identifying and evaluating risks:
Step 1 - Identify the fire hazards within your premises
You need to identify:
• Sources of ignition such as naked flames, heaters or some commercial processes.
• Sources of fuel such as accumulated waste, display materials, textiles or overstocked products.
• Sources of additional oxygen such as forced air circulation or medicinal or commercial oxygen supplies.
Step 2 - Identify people at risk
You will need to identify those people who may be especially at risk such as:
• People working in close proximity to fire hazards.
• People working alone or in isolated areas (such as roof spaces or storerooms).
• Children or parents with babies.
• The elderly or infirm and people who are disabled.
Step 3 - Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risk
Evaluate the level of risk in your premises. You should remove or reduce hazards where possible and reduce any risks you have identified, e.g. :
• Replace highly combustible materials with less combustible ones.
• Ensure adequate separation between combustibles and ignition sources.
• Operate a safe smoking policy.
When you have reduced the risk as far as possible you must assess the remaining risk and decide whether there are any further measures you need to provide to ensure a reasonable level of fire safety.
Steps 4-5: Recording & reviewing
The following provides additional guidance on completing the remaining two steps of your risk assessment - recording and reviewing:
Step 4 - Record, plan, instruct, inform and train
In this step you should record, plan, instruct, inform and train. You will need to record the hazards and people you have identified as especially at risk in Step 1 and Step 2. You should also record what you did about it in Step 3. A simple plan can help you achieve this.
You will also need to make an emergency plan, tailored to your premises. It should include the actions that need to be taken in the event of a fire in your premises or any adjoining premises. Staff, and occasionally others, such as hotel guests or volunteer stewards will need to be provided with instructions.
All employees should receive adequate information and training about the risks in the premises. Some, such as fire marshals, will require more thorough training.
Step 5 - Review
You should make sure your fire risk assessment is up to date, you will need to re-examine your fire risk assessment every time there is a significant change to the level of risk in your premises. This could include an increase in combustible materials being stored, a new night shift starting or a change in the type or number of people using your premises.
If you are not fully convergent with any of these requirements we would highly recommend you employ a Fully Qualified Fire Risk Assessor. |
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