Fire Risk Assessment

A fire risk assessment imposes duties to ensure:

• The duty to prevent fire spread;
• A duty to maintain Building Regulation standards for the use and protection of the fire service;
• A duty to appoint one or more employees to assist in ensuring compliance with the regulations (such as a fire marshal);

Like the Health & Safety at Work Act, it will be up to the responsible person to demonstrate that they did everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to prevent injury, and there is a civil liability if a breach of duty causes harm.

The fire service role is that of enforcement similar to the HSE for general health & safety matters.

Insurance companies will no doubt include clauses to ensure their clients are complying with the law, with obvious connotations where there is a lack of compliance i.e. they may refuse to pay some or all of an insurance claim.