New Fire Safety Guidance As Of October 2023

A major change to fire safety legislation will affect thousands of businesses in the United Kingdom… Are you affected?

New fire safety guidelines have now been implemented for all buildings regulated by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO). This guidance forms part three of the Home Office’s plan for improving fire safety following the Grenfell Tower disaster with the following aims:

1) Enhance collaboration between the responsible people within a building.

2) Impose requirements for recording fire safety information.

3) Simplify the process for enforcement authorities to take action for non-compliance.

4) Provide residents with more information regarding fire safety in their buildings.

HOWEVER, the biggest change will see new legal duties on responsible persons (RPs) to record their fire risk assessments in full. This changes the previous requirement of having a written fire risk assessment only when there are five or more employees within a premises.

This means no matter what size organisation you are; you will have to record the findings of your fire risk assessment.

Now every employer must conduct and record a fire risk assessment in full for their premises, regardless of their size.

This legislation also removed the word “significant” from The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This means it is no longer just the significant findings of the risk assessment that must be recorded but all findings of the risk assessment, including the measures that will be taken or have been taken by the responsible person, as required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

For further information about these changes or to ensure your workplace remains compliant with current legislation please email [email protected] or call us on 01707 326093.

We look forward to hearing from you!