The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005 – Part 42

April 21, 2020 9:23 am

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 41, LWF considered the instances where a disagreement over a breach of the Order can be determined by the Secretary of State. In part 42, we look at the guidance provided by the Secretary of State as per Article 50 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, intended to assist responsible persons with compliance with Articles 8-22.

Article 50 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 contains a requirement that the Secretary of State make guidance available to assist responsible persons in compliance with Articles 8-22 (and with any subsequent regulations made under the Order).

The MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government ) is responsible for provision of the guidance and produced 12 separate guides, each produced to relate to a different type of premises –

Offices and shops;
Factories and warehouses;
Sleeping accommodation;
Residential care premises;
Educational premises;
Small and medium places of assembly;
Large places of assembly;
Theatres, cinemas and similar;
Open air events and venues;
Health care premises;
Transport premises and facilities;
Animal premises and stables.

There is an additional supplementary guide giving guidance on means of escape for people with disabilities.

The guides follow the same format, the first section gives an overview of a fire safety risk assessment and the remainder of the guide is title specific, giving information on the necessary fire precautions for the type of premises indicated.

The guide does not contain prescriptive rules to follow, but rather forms a benchmark around which a flexible solution can be built, based on the principles contained within.

Each guide can be purchased in hard copy from HMSO, but also found freely on the Gov.uk site for reference and download.

It should be noted that while the Responsible Person is responsible for adherence to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, it does not mean that the Responsible Person must have experience and knowledge suitable for assessing and implementing the terms of the Order. He or she must, however, ensure that the terms are implemented through the use of Competent Persons, who may be from outside the organisation.

In part 43, LWF will begin to discuss Existing buildings in Scotland: The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. 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.