Firms prepare for new fire regulations

Businesses will need to ensure their premises comply with new fire safety regulations as of 1 October.

While much of the focus of the upcoming Red Tape Day is centred on compliance with new age discrimination legislation, all organisations and non-domestic premises in England and Wales must carry out fire risk assessments and ensure the safety of all those who may be at risk of fire.

Firms must also provide information and training in fire precautions and emergency arrangements under the new Fire Safety Reform Order or they face potential prosecution, according to the new law.

“All employers and the self-employed who are responsible for non-domestic premises need to act now in order to comply with the new regulations from October,” said Dr. Gary Mason, of Praxis42, a provider of health and safety e-learning.

Mason said that the new Fire Safety Reform Order is a consolidation of existing fire safety legislation and is being introduced to make the law easier to understand and comply with.

Responsibility for complying with the Fire Safety Order will rest with a company’s ‘responsible person’, which is usually the employer or site manager, he said, who will have to carry out the fire risk assessment.

Organisations that employ five or more people must now record the significant findings of this assessment.