The Chief Fire Officers Association

Fire Safety Law

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into effect in October 2006 and replaced over 70 pieces of fire safety law.

The Order applies to all non-domestic premises in England and Wales, including the common parts of blocks of flats or houses in multiple occupation. The law applies to you if you are:

• responsible for business premises
• an employer or self-employed with business premises
• responsible for a part of a dwelling where that part is solely used for business purposes
• a charity or voluntary organisation
• a contractor with a degree of control over any premises

Under the Order, the responsible person must carry out a fire safety risk assessment and implement and maintain a fire management plan. Guidance is available from Communities and Local Government.

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.

One of the major changes that the Order brings is the repeal of Certification under the Fire Precautions Act, which will see the inspection and enforcement regimes move from prescription to identifying risk.

The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) recognised that the Order would require Fire and Rescue Authorities to have in place strategies to effectively enforce the Order. To do this CFOA created a group whose focus has been on the strategies that this new legislation will require.

The group have created guides and example policy templates for Fire and Rescue Authorities to use. These have been checked for legal content and are available to be freely downloaded and adapted for local use.

Enforcing the Order

CFOA has developed guidance to underpin and implement the requirements of the new fire regulations to provide consistency and commonality, and match the National Framework guidance in the Enforcement Management Model (EMM), developed by the Local Authority Unit (LAU) Enforcement Management Branch, in conjunction with the Health and Safety Executive. This guidance is aimed at achieving consistency of enforcement within the context of the enforcement.