Responsible Person: Calls for Greater Visibility
Following yet another major fire in a block of flats earlier this autumn, campaigners’ calls for a public national register of individuals with legal responsibility for fire assessments in buildings have increased.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, which came in to force 10 years ago in England and Wales, introduced new legislation for property owners and managers. Under the Order a ‘Responsible Person’ must carry out, or appoint a ‘competent person’ to carry out, certain fire safety duties which include ensuring the general fire precautions are satisfactory and conducting a fire risk assessment. For businesses employing more than five people, it should be a written fire risk assessment. Landlords may ensure that their tenants have an obligation in their leases to provide a copy of any risk assessment and updates to them.
In the workplace a ‘Responsible Person’ would be the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under their control. In any other premises, it would be the person who has control of the premises or the owner (as occupier or otherwise) where a trade, business or other undertaking (for profit or not) is carried on.
The nature of multi-let buildings means there may be more than one Responsible Person – the tenants for the let premises and the landlord for the common parts. This could result in an overlap of responsibility and the Order requires Responsible Persons to co-operate and co-ordinate their measures to comply with the Order.
Fire Door Safety Week, which took place earlier this month, highlighted the need for far greater visibility of the Responsible Person, similar to the legal requirement for the first aider being named on health & safety posters in the workplace. Importantly, data published at the event identified that over half (58%) of all tenants “have no idea who the ‘Responsible Person’ is for the building where they live – the person to whom they should usually report their fire safety concerns”.
Spokesperson for Fire Door Safety Week, Hannah Mansell, commented: “We continue to house some of our most vulnerable residents in buildings with inadequate levels of fire safety. The fire service regularly has to deal with problems such as fire doors hanging off hinges, breaches in structural fire compartmentation, poor installation and maintenance of life safety products, non-existent or outdated fire risk assessments and blocked fire exits. Knowing what we know about the potentially devastating consequences of an out-of-control fire, this situation is completely unacceptable.
“Worse still is the basic lack of information given to residents about how and where to direct their own observations and concerns about fire safety in the building where they live.”
“The responsible person should not be a mystery person lurking in the shadows, but must be front and centre so that people know where to take their problems.”
Should you require expert guidance or support around your obligations as a Responsible Person or any of the issues detailed above, the S2 Partnership has a dedicated team of fire safety experts providing guidance, fire risk assessments, management systems, fire engineering, training, evacuation procedures or drills. For further information, contact us.