Fire Regulations

Brief Overview

Under the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997, there has been a general requirement for a risk assessment since (1992)
This became a specific requirement for most employers in 1997
Fire specific law overrides specific law (e.g. conditions of licence)
Risk based fire precautions override set fire conditions e.g. fire regulations overrode a fire certificate
As a result of piecemeal development the situation arose where many different pieces of legislation applied at the same time, with different enforcers. After some considerable delays, the all-encompassing fire safety regulations take effect from 1 October 2006 and replace the current over-complex and illogical fire safety regime.

Serious fires continued e.g. Bradford City F.C. 1985, Kings Cross Underground Station 1987 and a working party was established to recommend new regulations. These were embodied in The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which has resulted in: -

• A single consolidated law – with fewer enforcers
• A key tool for business and enforcers to prevent fires and save lives
• The elevation of prevention to that of protection
• The new regulations have been approved by Parliament will be effective from 1st October 2006.