Legislation

photo of firefighters studying commercial premises plans assessing risk

Current legislation

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the FSO) took effect from October 1, 2006.  It has two main purposes:

  • To ensure that business and premises owners comply with their fire safety obligations, which will;
  • Allow the enforcing authorities to enforce the FSO in a manner that is appropriate to the risks of specific types of businesses and premises.

View the full FSO.  This will take you to the website of the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), which will open in a new window.

Further information is available from us, by using our Non-Domestic Gateway enquiry service, and at the following external sites:

 

Fire Certificates

The introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 repealed the previous Fire Precautions Act.  This in turn removed the status of, and need for, a fire certificate.

The new legislation requires the Responsible Person to carry out a Fire Risk Assessment to ascertain any fire safety shortcomings and to act appropriately to rectify these.  More on fire risk assessment.

To aid the responsible person, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) have published a suite of guides relevant to different building categories or purpose groups.  Browse the list of guidance documents for businesses.

What does 'Responsible Person' mean?

Under the FSO, 'responsible person' means:

  • (a) in relation to a workplace, the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under his control;
  • (b) in relation to any premises not falling within paragraph (a):
    1. the person who has control of the premises (as occupier or otherwise) in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, business or other undertaking (for profit or not); or
    2. the owner, where the person in control of the premises does not have control in connection with the carrying on by that person of a trade, business or other undertaking.

 

Our strategy

In order to comply with the duties imposed by the implementation of the FSO, we have developed a strategy with regard to fire safety in non-domestic premises.  It sets out how we will monitor and enforce the FSO and how we will evaluate and monitor our own practices.

The strategy is in support of the Fire Authority's vision 'to be a key contributor to community safety by proactively identifying risks and taking positive action to save lives, protect people and safeguard the environment'.