Welcome to our web pages for
Fire Safety In Places Other Than The Home...

...the reason for this long title is that the Fire Safety Order covers premises that are not just workplaces. In fact it covers any place that is not domestic premises, but will cover areas used in common by the occupants of more than one domestic premises, for example the stairs or corridors in a block of flats.

The Fire Safety Order also covers any tent or movable structure, it may cover under certain circumstances a ship, aircraft, locomotive/rolling stock, or vehicle trailer.

Fire certificates will no longer be issued and those previously in force will have no legal status (however, they may be used as a good starting point for a fire risk assessment).

The aim of these pages is to give you an understanding of the requirements of the Fire Safety Order and to help you implement them.

To help we recommend you visit the 'Brief History of Fire Safety Legislation' pages provided on this website, and then return to this page.

The Fire Safety Order

The Fire Safety Order covers ‘general fire precautions’ and other fire safety duties which are needed to protect in case of fire the ‘Relevant Persons’ these are any person who is or may be lawfully on the premises or in the immediate vicinity who may be affected by a fire on your premises.

Complying with the Fire Safety Order rests with the ‘Responsible Person’. In a workplace, this is the employer if the workplace is to any extent under their control. If not a workplace the responsible person is the person who has control of the premises. If there is more than one responsible person, all must take all reasonable steps to work with each other.

If you are the responsible person one of the duties is to  carry out a Fire Risk Assessment which must focus on the safety in case of fire of all ‘relevant persons’. It should pay particular attention to those at special risk, such as the disabled and those with special needs, and must include consideration of any dangerous substance liable to be on the premises.

Your fire risk assessment will help you identify risks that can be removed, replaced, or reduced and to decide the nature and extent of the general fire precautions you need to take to protect people against the fire risks that remain. If you employ five or more people, your premises are licensed or an alterations notice is in force, you must record the significant findings of the assessment.

Duties under the order are imposed on any person as well as the responsible person, who has an obligation of any extent by virtue of a contract or tenancy in relation to the maintenance / repair or the safety of any premises. For example a landlord who by virtue of the tenancy agreement maintains the fire extinguishers has taken on the duty imposed by Article 17. However the responsible person must still ensure that Article 17 is complied with in respect of their premises.

For a more detailed summary of the Fire Safety Order legislation visit our 'Legislation' pages on this website.

The Fire and Rescue Service is the enforcing authority for the majority of premises under the Fire Safety Order. To do this we may visit your premises and undertake a fire safety audit. There is an outline of the Audit Process and the actions we may take on this website.

A set of guidance notes has been developed to tell you what you have to do to comply with fire safety law, help you to carry out a fire risk assessment and identify the general fire precautions you need to have in place. You can find out more about these guides and how to obtain them by visiting our Fire Safety Order Guides page on this website.