Complying to fire regulations

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Regulations came into force on 1 October 2006, rendering all existing fire certificates void. The new regulations require the majority of property occupiers to carry out a fire risk assessment and comply with its recommendations or face hefty fines and/or imprisonment. They will either repeal or amend most of the current legislation and effectively replace it with a new single-risk, assessment-based approach.There may be a some overlap of these responsibilities, for example, in commercial premises which have common parts. The responsible person for each let part will be the tenant, with the landlord the person responsible for the common parts. In such cases the parties will have a duty to co-operate. The responsible person has a duty of care towards ‘relevant persons’, that is any person who is lawfully on the premises and any person in the immediate vicinity of the premises who may be at risk of fire on the premises. The responsible person must nominate a ‘competent person’ to carry out the requirements of the the new regulations and failure to do so will amount to a breach of them. The competent person must have suitable training, experience and other qualities to carry out the duties of the responsible person. The responsible person has many duties. They need to carry out fire risk assessments and take whatever action is necessary, as well as carry out any works, or install any fire precautions the assessment recommends. The assessment must be continuously reviewed. Information from the assessment must be recorded if a business has five or more employees. It is also necessary to establish a well signposted means of escape in the event of a fire. A suitable fire alarm systemand emergency lighting must be provided, and the responsible person must also ensure that fire-fighting equipment is provided and maintained. All employees must be trained in fire safety procedures and provided with all the relevant fire safety information and details of any fire escape procedures. This training must be kept up to date and renewed as and when required. Fire wardens should be appointed, along with people to help with evacuations, contacting emergency services and carrying out other duties.

Enforcement and Penalties

Enforcement of the new regulations will be carried out by the local fire authority. The authority can:

• Appoint inspectors to enter premises to inspect them.
• Serve an alteration notice, requiring it to be informed of any changes to fire safety precautions to the premises or any
• change in their use.
• Serve a prohibition notice to prevent or restrict use until the regulations have been complied with.
• Serve an enforcement notice stating works or acts required to comply with the regulations.

The price for not complying with the regulations ranges from a £5,000 fine imposed by a magistrates' court to an unlimited fine and/or two years' imprisonment imposed by a high court. Compliance with the new regime is a serious requirement for the responsible person, although caution must be exercised over the choice of risk assessment contractor. The responsible person must ensure that anyone designated to carry out duties under the new regulations is properly qualified and competent. The bottom line is that it is a case of keeping employees and premises safe. Information supplied by Stuart Darlington, a commercial real estate lawyer in London Law Firm, Davenport Lyons.