After five years, is the Regulatory Reform
(Fire Safety) Order working?
The Fire Safety Order or FSO is working
better than the system it superseded.
Businesses are more aware of fire safety in
the workplace which is a good thing. There
should be less chance of a fire occurring in
the first place and while there is still a lot of
confusion, mixed messages and confrontation
out there this is always the case when
government introduces new policy.
One area causing major headaches is the
responsible person’s duty to carry out a
suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment
(FRA). Thousands of successful prosecutions
have been brought against business owners
under the FSO. The single most common
offence has been the lack of a suitable and
sufficient FRA. Initially, the government
decided that business owners could
implement their own FRA once the correct
guidance was made available. Unfortunately
many of the 150 page guides on fire safety
went unread or were misunderstood by those
who did.
There are also the entrepreneurs who see
legislation change as a financial opportunity,
hence the emergence of many fire risk
assessor courses. An open invitation to
employers to attend or send employees on, a
course that would supposedly give them the
skills to produce their own FRA. Sadly there
are in my opinion some unethical course
providers still offering one day courses.
Almost 95% of FRAs completed in house
would not stand up under scrutiny in the
event of a fire situation or a Fire Service visit.
The alternative route chosen by
conscientious employers is to appoint a
professional ‘risk assessor’ although the
problem at the moment is finding an
assessors with recognised fire safety
qualifications. Many have health and safety
qualifications like IOSH or MIOSH, but this is
a completely different playing field.
For companies with five employees or less
and a workplace with a simple layout and no
major risks to consider, the best advice is to
read the government guides and produce
your own FRA. Any contractors you have
employed to carry out checks on
extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights
etc should be in a position to assist or advise
you. These are your nominated competent
persons for the areas in which you have
employed them. If your workplace is more
complicated or you have a sleeping risk on
the premises, employ a fire risk assessor but
ensure they hold a fire safety qualification.
This way you will distance yourself from
future litigation as you can prove you have
discharged your legal duty to employ a
competent person. If an under qualified
assessor gets it wrong, how can you prove
you have exercised due diligence?
For any under qualified assessors out there
my best advice is to cease trading in this area
or become qualified. Article supplied by Mike Pearson – Wirral Fire