The safety of people working in any commercial or business property against the risks associated with fire is the prime responsibility of the owner or the landlord. The relevant law in the UK also binds them to ensure the safety of the people occupying their property.
Fire is the most severe threat in the workplace. So many fire incidents occur in different places every year, causing serious damage to properties and businesses. The financial impact of such fire incidents is often so damaging that many businesses could never recover and ultimately had to wind up.
That's why it was made compulsory for all workplaces in the UK to ensure the safety of the employees against potential risks of a possible fire incident. Therefore, the owners or property managers must conduct a risk assessment of their property against a fire and keep it updated regularly. The basic purpose of this assessment is to ensure the safety of the employees by highlighting the risk factors and identifying the people who might be at risk.
Fire Risk Assessment
Fire Risk Assessment is a survey of the property, equipment installed, and the people working there to evaluate the likelihood of a fire eruption. Identifying the people at risk of being affected by a fire is also one of the main features of this survey. The fire risk assessment comprises the following steps:
- Highlight the possible fire hazards.
- Mark the people who might be at risk.
- Appraise the potential risks of the eruption of a fire.
- Evaluate the risk and fire control system in place at the workplace.
- Document the findings and recommendations or suggestions that must be implemented to improve the safety standards.
- Periodic or regular review of the fire risk assessment, whenever required by the law or considered necessary by the property managers.
The Fire Safety Law
Enforced in October 2006, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the basic law regulating all non-domestic properties' fire safety. This law applies to all buildings, including the HMOs (houses in multiple occupations), blocks of flats, and any other building or structure other than private homes.
The Responsible Person
The law requires "the Responsible Person" to conduct fire risk assessments in the workplace. As the law clarifies, a responsible person is the owner, the landlord, or any other person nominated to care for his property.
He can be one of the employees or any other person the owner hires for this purpose. So, a responsible person might also be referred to as the property manager or the caretaker and responsible for conducting a fire risk assessment on the property.
The Competent Person
The law further requires that the assessment should be done by a “competent person.” However, the law does not clarify the term “competent person.” The reason might be the considerable fluctuation in the size of the properties and the quantum of fire risk assessment required in that building. While conducting the fire risk assessment of a small workplace is a simple task, it would be entirely a different scheme when assessing a huge commercial organization or a factory.
However, a competent person should generally have the basic expertise and knowledge of fire risk assessment. He must also have a reasonable knowledge of how to conduct such an assessment. And above all, he must be aware of the main provisions of the fire safety law.
Frequency of Conducting a Fire Risk Assessment
No specific timeframe is given in the law on the frequency of conducting a fire risk assessment. The law, however, requires to do it regularly. It should, therefore, be done on the following occasions:
- When starting a new business.
- When shifting a business to a new premises.
- When inducting new employees or changing the responsibilities of the current employees.
- When introducing new technologies or changing the operational processes.
- When ordered by the local firefighting authorities.
Under normal circ*mstances, a fire risk assessment should be conducted at least once every 12 months but reviewed in case of any of the above eventualities. A completely new assessment should also be conducted after 5 years from the original assessment date, irrespective of the number of subsequent reviews.
Why Does a Fire Risk Assessment Fail?
There might be several reasons why a fire risk assessment fails, depending on the factual circ*mstances on the site. However, the most common reasons for failing a fire risk assessment might be:
- Absence of a formal risk assessment process. A risk assessment conducted haphazardly or without a formal risk assessment process would be a significant cause of failing a fire risk assessment.
- Unrealistic goal setting. Trying to achieve a zero-risk goal is an unrealistic approach that may fail the entire risk assessment.
- The timing is Another possible reason for failing a risk assessment. Conducting a fire risk assessment at the wrong time may also fail.
- As the law requires, selecting a competent person is crucial. A person with poor knowledge or less experience may fail the fire risk assessment.
What Happens If You Fail a Fire Risk Assessment?
The spontaneous response to this query might be that you will be held responsible for violating the law. But failing a fire risk assessment in your workplace might have more severe consequences. Let's see how:
- More Chances of Fire Incidents – when your property is not adequately assessed for fire risk, the chances of fire incidents may increase considerably. The fire risk assessment provides information about the fire hazards and identifies the people who might be at risk. It also suggests safety measures to avoid the occurrence of fire incidents. Failure to conduct a fire risk assessment will deprive you of all this important information, thus increasing the probability of fire accidents.
- Unawareness about Fire Hazards – If there's no fire risk assessment, you will not be aware of the fire hazards present in your workplace. Hence, the people working on your premises will remain ignorant about these hazards. This will increase the vulnerability of your premises against potential fire eruptions.
- Failure to Control the Fire – When you don’t have a fire risk assessment, you will not be aware of the fire hazards on your premises. This will affect your capacity to control the risks associated with these hazards. Failure to control the hazards will affect the fire safety measures on your premises.
- Legal Consequences – Failing a risk assessment will expose you to various legal consequences. You will be held responsible for not complying with the legal responsibilities. The HSE may also investigate you, especially when a mishap occurs on your premises, and you don’t have a fire risk assessment on record. You may also have to pay penalties.
- Enforcement of Law – If you are found guilty of breaking the law, in case of failure to prove that the fire risk assessment was done on your premises, the HSE might enforce various legal actions against you, including the issuance of verbal or written notices, initiation of legal proceedings, prosecution, and prohibition of business activities.
- Moral Consequences – Think of a deadly fire incident at your workplace when you were at fault for not conducting a fire risk assessment. You may come under immense moral pressure. You may be guilty of any unfortunate happenings with your employees or colleagues. You may face a moral and emotional fallout.
- Delay in accomplishment of tasks – When you fail to conduct a fire risk assessment on your workplace, the chances of accidents will increase. In case of any such happenings on your premises, your ongoing tasks will face delays, thus affecting your business.
- Financial Impact – The most severe consequence of failing a fire risk assessment might be the financial losses you may face. It may be due to losing a client, loss in business due to delay in the accomplishment of tasks, cost of repairs and renovation of premises, legal expenses, payment of fines, and many other business-related losses. You may face such financial losses if you fail to conduct a timely fire risk assessment.
Conclusion
Conducting a regular and timely fire risk assessment is crucial for you, your property, your business, and more importantly, your employees. It is also your legal responsibility. So, generally, it is presumed that being a responsible and law-abiding citizen, you must do it regularly. But in case you have not done it or forgotten to do it, the consequences might be more severe than you might think.
Apart from being a culprit of breaking the law, you may also face financial and business losses in an accident without a valid fire risk assessment. Above all, you may have to undergo immense moral and emotional pressure of being at fault, which results in severe consequences for your employees.
