The following people are responsible for fire safety in business or other non-domestic premises if you’re:

• an employer
• the owner
• the landlord
• an occupier
• anyone else with control of the premises, for example a facilities manager, building manager, managing agent or risk assessor

You’re known as the ‘responsible person’. If there’s more than one responsible person, you have to work together to meet your responsibilities.

The Fire Safety Order also applies if you have paying guests, for example if you run a bed and breakfast, guesthouse or let a self-catering property.

Responsibilities

As the responsible person you must:

• carry out a fire risk assessment of the premises and review it regularly
• tell staff or their representatives about the risks you’ve identified
• put in place, and maintain, appropriate fire safety measures
• plan for an emergency
• provide staff information, fire safety instruction and training

You can read about how to make sure your premises are safe from fire.

Non-domestic premises

Non-domestic premises are:

• all workplaces and commercial premises
• all premises the public have access to
• the common areas of multi-occupied residential buildings

Shared premises

In shared premises it’s likely there’ll be more than one responsible person. You’ll need to co-ordinate your fire safety plans to make sure people on or around the premises are safe.

For common or shared areas, the responsible person is the landlord, freeholder or managing agent.

Alterations, extensions and new buildings

When building new premises or doing building work on existing premises, you must comply with building regulations. This includes designing fire safety into the proposed building or extension.

Read the fire safety building regulations.

Penalties and enforcement

As the responsible person you must carry out and regularly review a fire risk assessment of the premises. This will identify what you need to do to prevent fire and keep people safe.

Carrying out the assessment

1. Identify the fire hazards.
2. Identify people at risk.
3. Evaluate, remove or reduce the risks.
4. Record your findings, prepare an emergency plan and provide training.
5. Review and update the fire risk assessment regularly.

The fire safety risk assessment chart gives more detailed information about these steps.

You’ll need to consider:

• emergency routes and exits
• fire detection and warning systems
• fire fighting equipment
• the removal or safe storage of dangerous substances
• an emergency fire evacuation plan
• the needs of vulnerable people, for example the elderly, young children or those with disabilities
• providing information to employees and other people on the premises
• staff fire safety training

Your plan must show how you have:

• a clear passageway to all escape routes
• clearly marked escape routes that are as short and direct as possible
• enough exits and routes for all people to escape
• emergency doors that open easily
• emergency lighting where needed
• training for all employees to know and use the escape routes
• a safe meeting point for staff

People with mobility needs

You should also make special arrangements for people with mobility needs, for example make sure there are people to help wheelchair users get downstairs if there’s a fire.

Fire safety equipment, drills and training