To comply with your legal responsibilities in England and Wales for fire safety under the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 you need to:
- Appoint a responsible person
- Assess the fire risks in your premises. These must be recorded if you have five or more employees (including volunteers), but it is good practice to record it in any event, regardless of how many people you employ.
- Make sure that a fire can be detected and people warned in a reasonable time.
- Provide appropriate fire fighting equipment, which must be checked and maintained.
- Make sure people can escape safely from your premises and know what to do in the event of a fire.
There is a lot of detailed information available through the following links. Please note some of these documents are large and may take some time to download. You can order hard copies of these booklets by phone or in writing from:
Communities & Local Government Publications,
PO Box 236, Wetherby, LS23 7NB
Tel: 0870 1226 236
Fax: 0870 1226 237
Please note charges will apply for hard copy documents.
For a short guide to making premises safe from fire go to:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/144647.pdf (9 pages)
For detailed advice specific to places of assembly, including churches and venues holding up to 300 people,see:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/144821.pdf (145 pages)
For venues over 300 people:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/150955.pdf (155 pages)
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/322721.pdf (56 pages)
In addition you need to think about accessibility and means of escape for disabled people.
More information and links can also be found in the section on Disability Discrimination.
Please note this order does not apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland, where different legislation is in force.
For Scotland visit: http://www.infoscotland.com/firelaw
For Northern Ireland visit: http://www.nifrs.org/fire_safety.php
