Feature
Too many building owners are cutting corners when it comes to emergency lighting, despite past tragedies
Anthony Martindale at Eaton and Chris Watts, fire safety consultant, BAFE board member and chairman of British Standard committee responsible for BS 5266-1 (code of practice for emergency lighting), provide a guide facilities managers on the issue and how they can meet their legal duty of safety.
• Despite previous studies highlighting the dangerous gaps in emergency lighting, it remains an issue today. According to a 2020 Hilclare report¹, 44 per cent of firms in England don’t have the correct emergency lighting.
The facts and figures
• In 2018, Inside Housing revealed² over a third of England’s social housing tower blocks have inadequate emergency lighting. In a survey of 1,584 tower blocks – 40 per cent of the country’s total social stock – a total of 402, or 25 per cent, had missing or broken emergency lighting on the residents’ escape routes.
Prison sentences are a real consequence of poor emergency lighting practice and fines are growing in their severity.
• Fire safety solicitor Warren Spencer reviewed³ 200 of his cases from 2006 to 2019 brought under the Fire Safety Order legislation and found that the average fine for breaches since the Grenfell fire tragedy is £27,519, more than a third (35%) higher than the average across 2014-2019, which is £20,375. Other findings included:
» Government figures from a Freedom of Information requested by Spencer showed that between 2006 and 2009, defendants were convicted of 1904 charges. Of those charges, 443 (23%) related to article 14 emergency routes and exits. Multiple occupancy (HMOs) premises represent 17.5% of the national cases prosecuted.
» The maximum sentence under the Fire Safety Order is two years imprisonment. The range of sentences handed out across Spencer’s cases varied, with fines being the main punishment. Out of 3 cases (6 defendants) involving fatalities, two of these cases resulted in suspended prison sentences.
» A total of £1,230,879 has been handed out in fines, and the total costs ordered is £819,616. » Out of 200 cases, only nine defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges brought. » Article 14 of the Fire Safety Order relating to emergency routes and exits is the most enforced.
• Some of the most high-profile incidents include:
» The owner of the New Kimberley Hotel in Blackpool – dubbed a ‘death trap’ – was handed an 18-month prison sentence⁴ in 2015 for breaching the Fire Safety Order, with no proper emergency lighting cited as one of the breaches.
» In 2018, a private landlord was fined £400,000⁶ over a lack of emergency lighting in a property in Lincoln. » The owner of a hotel in Yorkshire was fined over £50,000⁷ for fire safety offences in 2018, including a failure to monitor and maintain the emergency lighting.
» A Cardiff care home operator was fined £400,000⁵ (plus fees) in 2020 due to fire breaches putting residents at “serious risk”, including deficient emergency lighting.
¹:
https://www.luxreview.com/2020/01/08/44-of-firms-don-t-have-correct-emergency-lighting/
²:
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/the-biggest-ever-survey-of-fire-risk-assessments-has-revealed-widespread-safety-problems-56774 ³:
https://www.firesafetylaw.co.uk/the-fire-safety-order-200-cases-in-review/
⁴:
https://www.luxreview.com/2015/02/20/here-s-a-guy-who-wishes-he-d-looked-after-his-emergency-lighting/ ⁵:
https://www.southwales-fire.gov.uk/newsroom/news/cardiff-care-home-fined-nearly-half-a-million-pounds/ ⁶:
https://www.luxreview.com/2018/07/02/record-4m-fine-over-lack-of-emergency-lighting/ ⁷:
https://www.luxreview.com/2018/03/07/hotelier-fined-50-000-over-emergency-lighting
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