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Health and Safety
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This guidance is issued by the Home Office, the Scottish Executive, the Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland) and the Health & Safety Executive, This guide tells you, the employer, what you have to do to comply with the law relating to fire issues. It also tells you how to carry out your fire risk assessment and identify the safeguards, which you should have in your workplace.
Although written for employers, the guide will also be useful if you are self-employed or are in control of places to which people you do not employ, and the members of the public, have access. The information will also provide a useful source a reference for:
- Employees;
- Employee-elected representatives
- Trade union-appointed health and safety representatives; and
- All other people who have a role in ensuring fire safety in the work place.
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| This guidance gives advice on hoe to avoid fires in the work place and how to ensure people’s safety if a fire does start. Why should you read it? Because: |
- Fire kills. In 1997, UK fire brigades attended over 36000 fires in work places. These fires killed 30 people and injured over 2600.
- Fire cost money. The cost of a serious fire can be high and afterwards many businesses do not reopen. You can get advice about minimising fire loses from your insurer, or the Fire Protection Association.
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| This guidance explains the basic requirements of and can help you comply with: |
- The fire precautions (workplace) regulations 1997 (as amended) these are referred to as the fire regulations in the rest of this guide; and
- The management of Health and Safety at work regulation 1992 (as amended).
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The advice in this guide is applicable to most workplaces. However, not all the precautions will be relevant in all the circumstances, nor is the guidance intended to be sufficiently comprehensive to cover those workplaces where very large quantities of flammable or explosive materials are handled.
The term 'fire precautions' includes matters, which are the subject of legal requirements under specific fire precautions legislation. These include the Fire Regulations and the Fire Precautions Act 1971 (as amended) and, more generally, under health and safety legislation including the Health and Safety at work etc Act 1974 and regulations made under that Act.
The Fire Regulations and the Fire Precautions Act 1971 are the responsibility of the Home Departments and are enforced by the fire authorities. |
| Fire Precautions Legislation deals with general Fire Precautions. These include: |
- Means of Detection and giving warning in case of fire;
- The Provisions of Means of Escape;
- Means of Fighting Fire; and
- The Training of Staff in Fire Safety.
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| The fire regulations also include a requirement to undertake an assessment of the fire risks. (In this guide, the term ‘fire risk’ collectively describes both the risk of fire occurring and the risk to people in the event of fire.) |
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and regulations made under it cover the provision of process fire precautions which are intended to prevent the outbreak of a fire or minimise the consequences should one occur. Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the Local Authority enforce these precautions.
In some places you may need to apply for a fire certificate, a license or other form of approval before using the workplace. You may find more information about the legislation, which might apply to your work place in Annex A, and enforcement arrangements for the Fire Regulations in Annex B.
For work places which are subject to the Fire Regulations, if the fire authority considers that any provisions of the Regulations has not been complied with in respect of your workplace or the employees who work there, they can serve a notice requiring you to improve your fire precautions. Such a notice is known as an enforcement notice and failure to comply with it is a Criminal Offence.
In work places more than one employer, a notice may also be served on any other person who has control, to any extent, over parts of the workplace.
In very serious cases, which are serious threat to life, the fire authority can serve you with a notice under section 10 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971. This notice can prohibit or restrict the use of your workplace until the risk to your employees or other people has been reduced; failure to comply with it is a Criminal Offence.
A failure to comply with the Fire Regulations which, places one or more employees at serious risk in case of fire is, in itself, a Criminal Offence. In any proceedings for such an offence, it is a defence for people charged to prove that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.
An employer, or other person, found guilty by a court of either failing to comply with the terms of an enforcement notice, or of placing employees at serious risk by failing to comply with the Fire Regulations, may be sentenced: |
- On summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or
- On indictment, to a fine or up to two years’ imprisonment, or both.
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