Some of our clients

Shropshire Health and Safety, Starting With Fire

SafeWise advise businesses on safety across Shropshire, in Telford, Shrewsbury and the market towns, and we have been at it since 2012. Fire law is unusual. It names an individual and hands the duty to them, and plenty of owners have never been told it is them.

Who Is the Responsible Person for Fire Safety?

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 does not address itself to companies. It addresses the responsible person, and article 3 says who that is. In a workplace it is the employer, provided the workplace is to any extent under your control. Otherwise it is whoever controls the premises in connection with running a trade or business, and failing that, the owner.

The Duty Can Sit With More Than One Person

Article 5 catches people out. The duties in articles 8 to 22 fall on the responsible person, and again on anybody else with control of the premises, limited to matters within their control. A landlord with repair or safety obligations in a lease has control that far. Where two or more responsible persons share a building, article 22 tells each of them to co-operate, to co-ordinate, and to warn the others about risks their own work creates. Rent a unit on an estate in Telford, or an office over a shop in Shrewsbury, and that building probably has more than one. Neither party gets to assume the other has dealt with it.

The Jobs That Come With the Title

The Order sets them out one by one, and they go past having an assessment on file.

Make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, and review it whenever the building or the way you work in it significantly changes
Record the significant findings, and your fire safety arrangements, as soon as you have five employees or more
Establish evacuation procedures, run drills, and nominate enough competent people to carry them out
Appoint at least one competent person to help you put the preventive and protective measures in place
Train employees when they start, and again when new work, equipment or technology changes their risk

Those nominated people are the reason fire marshal training exists. The Order will not tell you how many is sufficient. That depends on the building and how many people are in it at the time. Article 21 puts the training in working hours rather than their own. Our course runs three hours at our Wolverhampton office, covering fire legislation, how fire and smoke behave, drills and extinguisher use, with a practical assessment on a VR system.

You Cannot Hand the Duty to Somebody Else

Article 32 makes it an offence to fail on articles 8 to 22 where that failure puts somebody at risk of death or serious injury in a fire. If a company commits it and a director, manager or secretary consented, connived or was simply neglectful, that officer is guilty alongside the company. The same article says the act or default of an employee, a nominated fire marshal or an appointed competent person gives the employer no defence. Bringing us in does not move the duty off you. It gives you the assessment, the arrangements, the trained people and the records behind the one defence the Order does offer, that you took all reasonable precautions.

We sell this as a monthly membership, safety by itself or with HR added to it. For the employment side, we have HR consultants in Shropshire too.

Shropshire fire risk assessments and fire marshal training, from qualified assessors.

More About Us

The Duty Has a Name on It:
The Fire Safety Order gives the duty to the responsible person. In a workplace that is the employer.

Shared Buildings, Shared Duties:
Where one building holds more than one business, every responsible person in it must co-operate with the others.

Nominating Somebody Is Only Half of It:
The Order wants competent people to run an evacuation, and competent means trained and able on the day.

Five Employees Changes Things:
At five or more employees the significant findings and the arrangements have to be written down.

Find Out Who Holds the Fire Safety Duty in Your Building

Ring 01922 279 129 and we will go through the premises, who the responsible person is, and what the Order asks of them. Or send the form below and you will hear from somebody within 24 hours.

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