The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 – Part 12

September 23, 2019 1:18 pm

Lawrence Webster Forrest (LWF) is a specialist fire engineering and fire risk management consultancy whose aim is to give information on best practice in fire safety for facilities management personnel through this blog series. In part 11, we looked at the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) and its resulting impact, before considering the scope of the regulations. In part 12, we will discuss those buildings which are definitively not covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The definition of premises given in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, (RRFSO), is very wide-ranging and includes the vast majority of structures – whether on land, water, air, wheels, temporary or permanent.

Despite the comprehensive list of inclusions, the RRFSO does exclude some premises and gives details:

– Domestic Premises.
– Offshore Installations.
– Ships under sail (a ship in dock under work would be included in the RRFSO).
– Fields, woodland, forestry or agricultural land, outdoors and away from the undertaking’s main buildings.
– Aircraft, trains, rolling stock, trailers, semi-trailers, vehicles for which a licence is due under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 or any vehicle exempted from duty under that Act.
– Mines, with the exception of buildings on the surface of the mine, which would be subject to the RRFSO.
– Borehole sites.

While domestic premises may seem to be a very wide-ranging term too, they are further defined by the Act as ‘premises occupied as a private dwelling (including any garden, yard, garage, outhouse or other appurtenance of such premises which is not used in common by the occupants of more than one such dwelling)’. The statement indicates clearly that any common areas of multiple occupation dwellings, such as the common areas in blocks of flats or houses of multiple occupation (HMO) will fall under the RRFSO.

It should be noted that while the common areas of blocks of flats are subject to the RRFSO in England and Wales, they are excluded from the equivalent legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Fire (Scotland) Act 2005
The Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

LWF will discuss the RRFSO and HMOs in more detail in part 13 of this blog series, as well as looking at those grey areas which may arise when attempting to establish if premises fall under the RRFSO or not. In the meantime, if you have any queries about your own facilities or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.

Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 25 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.

While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.