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Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 – Part 16

October 21, 2019 2:07 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 15, LWF discussed the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and considered work environments which involve sleeping or living on the premises. In part 16, we look at how fire safety standards are managed in some of the premises to which the RRSFO doesn’t apply.

Where premises do not fall under the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO), the provision of a fire safe environment is dealt with under other legislation. Marine legislation deals with fire safety on ships, for example.

Offshore installations are excluded from the RRFSO, but are dealt with under the Offshore Installation and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995, to which other safety-related legislation applies.

Mines excluded from the RRFSO are covered by the Health and safety at quarries – Quarries Regulations 1999 (PDF) which imposes requirements relating to fire precautions and measures to prevent explosions.

Boreholes, which are also excluded from the RRFSO, are governed by the The Borehole Sites and Operations Regulations 1995 which gives requirements relating to fire precautions.

While Crown Buildings are covered by the RRSFO in terms of fire safety duties, certain powers of enforcement and powers to serve notices do not apply to buildings both owned and occupied by the Crown, although buildings owned by the Crown and occupied by others will be subject to some of the powers.

The RRFSO introduced requirements relating to duty-holders and competent persons. In the Order, various groups of persons were named, (some of whom previously came under the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations or the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations), these are split into five categories:

– The responsible person
– Other persons who have control of the premises
– Competent persons to help with evacuation
– Persons competent to use fire-fighting equipment
– Competent persons to assist the responsible person in undertaking ‘preventive and protective measures’

In part 17 of this series on fire safety legislation, LWF will begin looking at the role of ‘responsible person’ and what duties and requirements are made under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. 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.

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