Fire Safety Law and the Responsible Person
Course resources
Download these working templates in Word and adapt them for your own workplace. They are yours to edit, print and use as part of your records.
Fire safety law puts the duty for most premises on one named person. If you run a business, own a building or manage the site, that person is very often you. This module sets out who the responsible person is, what the law asks of them, and what the fire and rescue authority can do if the duty is not met.
The law that applies in England
The main law is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, usually shortened to the Fire Safety Order. It covers almost all non domestic premises in England and Wales, from offices, shops and factories to care homes, schools, hotels and the common parts of blocks of flats. It replaced a patchwork of older rules and the fire certificate system with a single duty to assess and manage fire risk yourself. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own separate fire safety law, so if your premises are outside England you must check the rules that apply where you are.
Two more recent pieces of law sit on top of the Order. The Fire Safety Act 2021 made clear that where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the Order applies to the structure, the external walls including cladding and balconies, and the flat entrance doors. This closed an argument about what a fire risk assessment for a block of flats had to include. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force in January 2023 and place further duties mainly on higher risk and multi occupied residential buildings, for example giving floor plans and building information to the fire and rescue service, providing wayfinding signage, and carrying out regular checks of fire doors and lifts in high rise blocks.
Who is the responsible person
The Order names the responsible person and makes them accountable. In a workplace it is the employer, so far as the workplace is under their control. In other premises it is the person who has control of the premises, or the owner where control is shared. A building can have more than one responsible person, for example a landlord for the common parts and each employer for their own unit, and the law expects them to cooperate and share information.
What the responsible person must do
Carry out and keep up to date a fire risk assessment, put in place and maintain general fire precautions, appoint competent people to help, plan for an emergency, and give staff clear information, instruction and training. Where five or more people are employed, the significant findings of the assessment must be recorded.
Enforcement
The Order is enforced by the fire and rescue authority for your area. An inspecting officer can visit your premises, usually without an appointment, look at your fire risk assessment and records, and check that the precautions you claim are in place actually work. They are not there only to catch you out. Most will give advice first, but they hold real powers when a duty is being ignored or people are at risk.
The notices an officer can serve
| Notice | What it means |
|---|---|
| Alterations notice | Served on higher risk premises. It requires you to tell the authority before you make changes that could affect the fire risk. |
| Enforcement notice | Sets out failures to comply and the steps you must take to put them right, with a deadline. Ignoring it is an offence. |
| Prohibition notice | Restricts or stops the use of all or part of the premises where the risk to people is so serious that use should not continue. It can take effect at once. |
Serious breaches can lead to prosecution, unlimited fines and, in the worst cases, imprisonment. The point of this course is to make sure it never gets that far, by helping you understand the assessment, act on it and keep it current.
Bring it to your premises
Find out, in writing, who the responsible person is for your building. If you share the premises, list the other responsible persons and check you have a way of sharing fire safety information with them. If you cannot name them, that is the first gap to close.
Module summary
- The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places the duty to assess and manage fire risk on the responsible person in England and Wales.
- The Fire Safety Act 2021 confirmed the Order covers structure, external walls and flat entrance doors in buildings with two or more homes.
- The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 add duties mainly for multi occupied residential and higher risk buildings.
- The fire and rescue authority enforces the Order and can serve alterations, enforcement and prohibition notices.