Metro Safety

Fire Safety Legislation

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 was the biggest change to fire safety law in 35 years. It replaced the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 (as amended), the Fire Precautions Act (1971) and numerous local Acts. From 1st October 2006, Fire Certificates were no longer issued or recognised as legal documents by the enforcing authorities - the emphasis has changed to self-regulation through a process of fire risk assessment.

It is no longer the duty of the Fire Service to provide advice or to make sure the workplace is safe; that duty now lies with the responsible person who will be held accountable under this new legislation. The role of the fire authorities has changed to one of inspection and enforcement. They continue to visit premises to ensure that you have an adequate fire risk assessment with adequate fire precautions in place.

Failure to comply could lead to heavy fines and even imprisonment. So far, there have been many more successful prosecutions than previously and record fines in excess of £250,000 for compliance failures even for properties where there were no injuries or deaths from fire.

For more information on the new Fire Safety Order, Responsible Persons or competent persons you may find it helpful to download the Fire Safety Order attachment on the left.