Business Engagement:

The first step to ensuring the safety of a premises is the requirement to produce a recorded Fire Risk Assessment, this applies to all businesses no matter the size. The duty of the responsible person for a building/business is to identify any hazards and risks to your premises and take appropriate action to reduce them.

You can find more information about the five-step approach on our Fire Risk Assessments page.

Updated Fire Safety Legislation from October 2023:

• You must have a recorded Fire Risk Assessment and it must be reviewed regularly, especially if there are any changes made to the premises, or after a fire or near miss.
• Fire Safety Arrangements must be recorded for all premises.
• LFB advises that it is best practice to record your testing and maintenance of fire alarms and emergency lighting as part of your fire safety arrangements for business continuity (if you have them in your premises)
• LFB advises that it is best practice to record your emergency procedures and your staff training procedures as part of your fire safety arrangements for business continuity

You are responsible for your own Fire Risk Assessment, and we cannot do it for you, however, you can appoint a specialist to do the Fire Risk Assessment for you.

What you should do: depending on your business size

• Large complex business should contact an expert to come and help.
• SME or Smaller – if you think your potential risks aren’t complex, it’s possible to do it yourself. There are guides to help you and more information on the GOV website. 
• Heritage buildings – We strongly recommend that your Fire Risk Assessment is carried out by a Competent Person / Assessor who has an understanding of fire safety within heritage buildings.

Your Fire Risk Assessment will identify what you need to do to keep the premises safe. For example, what provisions you need to put in place and how to manage them. This could be practicing emergency procedures and training staff.

It is legal requirement to record your fire safety arrangements for effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the measures in place.

Your Fire Risk Assessment will have an Action plan as part of it. It will identify what you need to do to keep the premises safe. These may be fire safety deficiencies highlighted in your action plan by your fire risk assessor and they will have appropriate time frames to get them fixed.

The time frame depends on the Fire Risk Assessor and do vary, so it's important to check. For example, you might have to 'educate people what to do if there is a fire' or 'systems in place to alert people such as fire alarms and emergency lighting'.

The Regulatory Fire Safety Order 2005 requires people to be warned about a fire so they can leave the premises, for example by a fire alarm.

Your Fire Risk Assessment will say how you will alert people, depending on the size and design of your premises. For example, if you have a small premises with one room and one floor, it might be suitable to just shout ‘Fire’, if you have a bigger building, it might be to have an alarm and illuminated signs, this depends on your premises

For more information on fire alarms, please visit our fire alarms page.

Depending on your premises, you might need equipment like sprinklers, firefighting facilities dry/wet risers, Ansul fire suppression system, and fire extinguishers.

Your Fire Risk Assessment should say what equipment is required, such as, what type of fire extinguishers is required (Water, Foam, Wet Chemical, Dry Powder, etc)

If you have a fire extinguisher, there should be someone trained to use it (nominated fire marshal), and should be visually checked every 24 hours and serviced yearly by a competent person. 

You should only attempt to fight a fire if it safe to do so or received training by a competent person if not, get out and call the Fire Brigade on 999.

Due to their environmental impact, Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) extinguishers are being phased out and will no longer be suitable after 04 July, 2025.  Responsible Person’s should ensure that foam extinguishers are reviewed and replaced with a suitable substitute by this time.

All escape routes should lead to a fire exit that must lead you to an area of Safety.

• Escape routes should be kept clear, unlocked, and easily opened, when the building is being used.
• Assembly points should be clearly marked.
• Fire escape and exit signs should be used to guide those who don't know the premises or the route to safely evacuate.
• If an electrical emergency lighting system is required, then it must be tested and maintained. It should be visually checked daily, tested monthly and serviced yearly.
• There must be emergency lighting in your premises. Your Fire Risk Assessment should say what level, coverage and how intense the lighting needs to be in your premises. It won't say how bright or the exact places you need to put them - these are listed in British Standard 5266.

Fire doors are important to stop fire and smoke spreading, if they are damaged, they need to be repaired or replaced.

Fire Doors should be inspected regularly and you should:

• Be self-closing doors,
• Close completely, there should be no large gaps.
• Preferably open outwards
• Appropriate signs should be on the door such as ‘Fire Door Keep Shut’

Though prevention is always best, you are also required by law to make a detailed fire emergency plan so your people can keep themselves and members of the public out of danger.

A simple emergency plan must show that you have, among other things:

• A suitable fire detection system.
• A process for identifying false alarms.

You can find out more about Emergency plans on our dedicated Emergency plans page

All staff must be provided with fire safety training when they are first employed and
periodically.

This training should cover 4 key areas: 

• Prevention, rules and regulations
• What to do if there's a fire 
• Equipment and good practice
• Fire alarms

To see more information about what training should be covered and why, please visit our fire safety training page.

Dangerous substances are substances that are explosive, oxidising, flammable, highly flammable, or extremely flammable. They require additional measures to manage. For more information on how to comply with guidance, please check the Health and Safety Executive website.

The Fire Safety Order requires you to eliminate or reduce the risk as much as possible to people from the presence of these dangerous substances. We recommend you seek specialist advice if you are not sure.

Fire Safety Inspectors will carry out inspections to ensure premises are safe and the RP is complying with the Fire Safety Order, covering the above topics. It is important to note, though they can be booked in, they can be carried out without notice.

An Inspecting Officer will be looking at:

• Fire alarms, what you're doing to keep safe and firefighting equipment, to make sure it works.
• That your Fire Doors are in good condition
• Your emergency routes and exits are clear and signposted 
• Emergency lighting is working and in the right place
• Compartmentation breaches, (if there are any holes in between your premises and other premises connected to it)
• External facades, such as cladding.

After an inspection, the Inspecting Officer may:  

• Give you verbal advice,
• Issue an Enforcement Notice (a formal notice that you need to fix things),
• In extreme cases, prohibition, where access to your premises is restricted, until you fix certain things. 

When you have an Inspection, you should ask the Officer

• What you're being asked to do,
• What actions you need to do,
• How quickly you have to make these changes