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The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — explained for the Responsible Person
If you're an employer, building owner, landlord, occupier or anyone else with control of a non-domestic premises, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — usually called the RRO or the Fire Safety Order — is the law you answer to. Here's what it means in practice.
Who is the Responsible Person?
The Order assigns duties to one or more 'Responsible Persons'. Where there's an employer, that's the employer. In other premises it's whoever has control of the building — typically the owner, landlord, managing agent or occupier. Multiple Responsible Persons must cooperate with each other.
Your core duties
The Order sets out a series of general fire precautions you must take. The headline duties are:
- Carry out a fire risk assessment, identifying risks and people at risk.
- Eliminate or reduce risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Put in place — and maintain — appropriate fire safety arrangements.
- Provide information, instruction and training to staff.
- Provide suitable firefighting equipment, detection and warning systems.
- Plan for an emergency and record your significant findings.
When must the assessment be written down?
Following the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and amendments brought in by the Building Safety Act and the Fire Safety Act 2021, all fire risk assessments must now be recorded in writing — regardless of the size of your business. The old five-employee threshold no longer applies.
Penalties for getting it wrong
Enforcement sits with the local Fire and Rescue Authority. Minor breaches typically result in a notice; serious failings can result in unlimited fines and, where life is endangered, custodial sentences of up to two years. After Grenfell, prosecutions have become both more frequent and more severe.
What 'good' looks like
A defensible position usually means: a current written risk assessment, a logbook of weekly alarm tests and monthly extinguisher checks, annual servicing certificates from a competent engineer, a documented evacuation plan and evidence that staff have been trained. Without those records, you have no evidence of compliance.