Your Responsibilities
Black & Gold Fire Safety and Electrical Services Ltd understand that fire safety legislation can be confusing and overwhelming for business owners and landlords. Let us take that pressure from you by designing, installing, and maintaining the perfect fire alarm system for your business needs, abiding by all up-to-date legislation, and ensuring that the safety needs of you and your dependents are always a top priority.
You can read the government’s web page detailing your fire safety responsibilities here.
A SUMMARY OF
UK fire safety legistlation
As a business owner or landlord in the UK, you are legally obligated to:
- Ensure all employees participate in fire safety training and always have access to fire safety instructions and information.
- Identify all necessary fire safety measures and put these into practice.
- Create and maintain a process to manage these fire safety measures.
- Create and maintain an emergency plan.
- Carry out and record regular reviews of your fire safety measures and risk assessments.
Fire safety measures include, but are not limited to, the installation and maintenance of fire alarms, signage, and fire prevention and extinguishing tools.
Fire risk assessments
Written fire risk assessments are required for all businesses of 5 or more people and are an essential way of ensuring that effective procedures are implemented to keep your premises and people safe by reducing the risk of fire, while also providing safe processes to follow if a fire should occur.
Your fire risk assessment (or FRA for short) is the starting point for all fire precautions activity. FRAs are live documents that must be reviewed and updated regularly following any changes in premises, processes, personnel, equipment or following a near-miss or real fire.
Black & Gold Fire Safety and Electrical Services Ltd is a fire risk assessment company with FRA-trained assessors able to provide you with an extensive fire risk assessment specific to your site and business, together with a written report highlighting significant findings and recommendations.
Our assessors will pay you a return visit to walk you through our findings and recommendations, as required by the FRA
How We Complete Your Risk Assessment
There are several steps that must be taken when completing a risk assessment
Identify all fire hazards
1
Identify any people who may be at risk in the event of a fire
2
Evaluate and remove or reduce the identified risks
3
Record all findings
4
Following on from the assessment, the following steps must be taken:
- Review the risk assessment regularly (at least yearly) and make any required updates
- Prepare an emergency plan based on your findings
- Provide training to all employees
What information would you expect to find in a risk assessment?
- All emergency routes and exits
- Implemented fire detection and warning systems
- Potential sources of ignition, oxygen and/or fuel
- Precautions taken to prevent and restrict the spread of fire
- Available firefighting equipment and its state
- Existing fire evacuation plan
- All information and training materials provided to people or located around the premises
- Persons responsible for implementing the emergency plan
- Records of any staff training
- The type and number of people of risk, including vulnerable people and/or personas (e.g., the elderly or disabled), and any considerations that have been made to keep them safe
What should be included in an emergency plan?
- Clear passageways to all escape routes
- Clearly marked escape routes
- Emergency doors that open easily
- Emergency lighting where required
- Training for all employees
- A safe meeting point
- Enough escape routes and exits for all people within the premises to escape
- Special arrangements for people with mobility needs, such as a chair lift
Fire Risk Assessment FAQs
Yes. If you are responsible for a business or other non-domestic premises in England, you must ensure that a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment is carried out and kept up to date. This applies to workplaces, commercial premises and premises that members of the public can access.
A fire risk assessment identifies potential fire hazards, considers who may be at risk and determines the precautions required to keep people safe. Black & Gold can carry out a professional fire risk assessment tailored to your premises and business activities.
If you’re unsure whether your current assessment is still suitable, contact Black & Gold to discuss your premises and fire safety requirements.
The legal responsibility sits with the building’s Responsible Person. Depending on the premises, this could be an employer, owner, landlord, occupier, facilities manager, managing agent or another person with control of the property.
Black & Gold can support Responsible Persons by carrying out the assessment. Our trained fire risk assessors can inspect your premises, identify potential hazards and provide a detailed written report outlining significant findings and recommended actions.
There is no single legally specified expiry period for every fire risk assessment. Instead, it should be reviewed regularly and updated whenever there is reason to believe it may no longer be valid.
A review may be required following significant changes to the building, its layout, occupancy, work processes or fire safety equipment, or after a fire or near miss. For smaller and simpler premises, an annual review is widely recognised as good practice.
Yes. Fire risk assessment requirements are not limited to large companies. Responsible Persons for small businesses and non-domestic premises must also ensure that fire risks are properly assessed and recorded.
The complexity of the assessment will depend on the premises and level of risk. Black & Gold can provide fire risk assessments for businesses of different sizes, helping identify practical measures proportionate to the risks present.
Landlords, freeholders or managing agents may have fire safety responsibilities for premises under their control. This is particularly relevant to common or shared areas within multi-occupied residential buildings, as well as commercial properties and other premises covered by fire safety legislation.
A fire risk assessment can help identify hazards within these areas and determine whether existing fire precautions, such as fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors and escape routes, remain suitable.
Yes. Following a professional fire risk assessment, you should have a written record of the assessment and its significant findings. The report should clearly set out the fire risks identified, existing precautions and any actions recommended to improve fire safety.
Following a Black & Gold assessment, you will receive a written report specific to your premises, including significant findings and recommendations. Our assessors can also talk you through the results so you understand which actions should be prioritised.
To arrange a professional fire risk assessment for your premises, contact Black & Gold today.