Communities and Local Government
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- Fire and resilience
- Fire safety guidance and legislation
- Fire Safety Law
- Our Fire and Rescue Service (White Paper) 2003
- Fact sheet 4: Fire safety legislation
Fire and resilience
Fact sheet 4: Fire safety legislation
- Effective fire safety legislation should be a key factor in fire prevention.
- Current fire safety laws set out employers' and others' responsibilities for people's safety if there is a fire. At the moment there are over a hundred pieces of primary and secondary legislation with fire safety provisions. This makes it difficult for people to know what they have to do and is also a considerable burden to business.
- We want to simplify the law by getting rid of most of the overlaps and putting in place one set of legal requirements for fire safety that can apply to most places people use. We consulted on proposals for the reform in 2002 and can take this forward using a Regulatory Reform Order.
- The main focus of the new law will still be people's safety. However it will also help us move from a prescriptive regime, where the fire and rescue service determine the fire precautions to be provided, to a risk assessment-based approach where the person responsible for the premises must decide how to address the risks identified, while meeting certain requirements.
- Using risk assessment, employers and others will need to look at how to stop fires from happening in the first place, by getting rid of or reducing hazards and risks. So the new law will look first at stopping fires, and then at precautions to make sure people are safe if a fire does still happen.
- The law will apply to virtually all non-domestic properties and will be subject to monitoring and, where appropriate, enforcement action by - in most cases - the fire and rescue service.
- We aim to introduce this Order to Parliament later this year. Subject to Parliamentary approval, we expect the reforms to come into force by Autumn 2004.
