Summary
Gloucestershire’s premier business expert for fire and security is reaching out to smaller companies and sole traders in the county to help them stay safe – and avoid getting their fingers burned by changes to fire safety legislation.
Details
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 , UK non-domestic and business premises must regularly record and update their fire risk assessment whenever there is significant change – no matter what size their business.
But three years on from important changes enforced by the Building Safety Act 2022 , which came in on October 1 2023, many small businesses are not aware of a key shift in their responsibility. Firms with fewer than five people on their staff are no longer exempted from recording their fire risk assessment in writing, this tightening to fire protection laws coming in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.
According to Lee Clatworthy , who plays a key role as a training officer for the Bamfurlong -based specialists A&E Fire and Security , 2022’s updates to legislation are catching many businesses out, while some who are aware of the changed rules remain daunted by potential cost or lack of technical understanding.
As a result, A&E is now offering a specific guidance service for businesses to get this crucial form in order. The help, which is based on a £100 (inclusive of VAT) per-person fee, comes in the form of a hand-holding training session, the first of which will be held at A&E’s Cheltenham base on November 24 (2pm to 5pm ).
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Free opportunity for early birds However, as a special promotion to launch the service, the fee for this service is being cut to ZERO for the first five places booked on the course.
Lee explained: “The previous regulations made having a fire risk assessment mandatory but allowed the process to boil down to just making a ‘mental note’, with no proof being required to show an assessment had taken place.” As things are though, he said thousands of operators remain out there among the county’s estimated 20,000 firms (as identified in county authority data) with no awareness of the need to comply with fire legislation, their error posing a risk not just to themselves and their staff but also to neighboring commerce and residents.
Lee added: “Smaller businesses can miss the safety net and risk being fined, many believing that they can’t afford to have an expert review carried out, but the rules allow companies to download a free template and go through the process themselves – the only challenge being that, by signing off on the document you create, you have to legally certify that the assessment is ‘suitable and sufficient’.” He added: “That is where our experience comes in; by guiding firms on what they need to do and demystifying the process, they end up with a written fire risk assessment which serves to show due diligence, should there be any investigation after the unfortunate incident of a fire.
What You Need to Know
Free opportunity for early birds However, as a special promotion to launch the service, the fee for this service is being cut to ZERO for the first five places booked on the course.
Report source: Punchline Gloucester
