How up to date are you with the fire legislation. There are major changes afoot and if you were not previously aware of them, now is the time to catch up.
Fire is one of the most frightening and dangerous occurrences from a health and safety point of view, and therefore whenever we are conducting an assessment and identify problems with the fire arrangements, we always treat them as of the highest priority to be put right.
Current Situation
By and large, current fire legislation has been introduced as a piecemeal exercise in reaction to a variety of serious fire incidents. As a consequence, there is a lack of consistency and you need to search far and wide to locate it all. In fact, over 100 pieces of primary and secondary legislation have been identified that contain fire safety provisions and in many cases, the legislation is not primarily concerned with fire.
On top of the fragmentary nature of the legislation, there is also a lack of consistency in the way in which it is monitored and enforced between the HSE, the Fire Authorities and Local Government.
Planned Changes
All of this is set to change. The government held a period of consultation on proposed changes, which ended in November 2002. Their original intention was to introduce revised legislation in April 2004. However, this date slipped, first to Autumn of this year and now it is expected sometime in 2005.
So what will be the effect of the proposed changes?
First of all, the whole legislative picture should be simplified, removing overlaps and inconsistencies, and the same legislation will apply to most places, including virtually all non-domestic premises. Furthermore, the monitoring and enforcement will be primarily undertaken by the Fire & Rescue services.
In terms of emphasis, there will be a shift away from the prescriptive approach that has characterised existing legislation. Instead, the focus will be more on a Risk Assessment approach, with the person responsible for the premises being held responsible for fire safety.
On a slightly different tack, top priority will be given to fire prevention, followed closely by the safety of persons, should fire occur.
Practical Implications
So how might this affect you?
First of all you need to get up to date on the nature of the proposed changes and establish which of them directly affect you as an organisation. To this end, it might be worth while calling in some professional advice, from a Health and Safety Consultancy or the local Fire Authority.
If changes are required, you need to identify who is responsible for what. This can get a little complicated if you occupy leased or rented premises and even more complicated if you share the premises with other organisations.
Armed with this information, you should be able to draw up a plan of all the changes you deem to be necessary under the revised legislation.
Having said that, if you have been careful about fire safety in the past, then there is probably little that needs to be changed in practice – at least not at the time the new legislation comes into force. However, you need to become familiar with the new legislation and perhaps amend some of your processes, procedures, responsibilities etc. for the future.
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