FOCUS
FIREX International 2018
the duties of client, principal designer and principal contractor being critical to building safety during construction; and updated /streamlined guidance and standards for HRRBs, and possibly other buildings such as care homes and university accommodation. During the construction phase, a new JCA
would require those responsible to produce appropriate information, such as a digital record of the building and products used to underpin effective understanding of the constructed building throughout its lifecycle; a fire and emergency file showing fire strategy (the ‘golden thread’); full plans with detail and specification of building works regarding structural safety; and a construction control plan describing building safety and compliance through construction. Future enforcement models will be
considerations: specific duties and who holds them, individual and shared fire safety responsibilities, and the liabilities of directors and senior managers, quoting the relevant Articles in the FSO. Some prosecutions for serious fire safety failings/fire deaths have resulted in significant fines or imprisonment of landlords, managing agents, retails chains, individuals etc, she said, citing headline cases such as Lakanal House, and the care home run by provider FirstPort Ltd. To comply with these duties, Ms Page
continued, we should follow published British standards and government guidance, and seek competent advice, eg the primary authority scheme. (For more on the above points, see ‘Sure fire’, FRM July/August 2017, pp53-54). While health and safety sentencing guidelines implemented in 2016 do not yet apply to fire safety legislation, she said it was worth noting the levels of fines in cases such as Poundstretcher, which was fined £1m with £65k costs in January 2018 for 24 breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The latest fire enforcement statistics for 2016/17
showed a reduction in fire safety audits (54,247), 32% (17,151) of which were deemed unsatisfactory and resulted in fewer prosecutions (68). Turning to the impact of the Hackitt
report, Ms Page highlighted criticism of the interpretation of the ‘responsible person’ – responsibility can be handed down a chain of contractors. Residential properties of ten storeys or more can expect change regarding who the duty holders are, along the lines of CDM 2015 Regulations (where key roles are specified in Table 1), with one named duty holder in a finished building;
38 JULY/AUGUST 2018
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improvement/correction notices servable five or six years after building completion, and prohibition notices for serious deficiencies. Failure to comply with either would be a criminal offence. The JCA will oversee a new framework of
regulation and guidance, and the full lifecycle of buildings will be considered at all stages. Also likely are changes regarding residents’ rights (to information) and responsibilities; competency requirements, which were criticised as fragmented and lacking coherence, and a body to provide oversight of these; a mandatory incident or near miss reporting scheme; and a more effective product testing regime with clearer labelling and product traceability. Ms Page’s tips on reducing liability included
understanding powers and processes (issuing of notices, documentation required, etc); improving competence through a better understanding of fire safety legislation or gaining appropriate training and experience; and following guidance on choosing a risk assessor and checking their credentials and experience. Her advice was to ensure you understand the findings of a risk assessment, then act swiftly and robustly. ‘Query anything that doesn’t make sense,’ she suggested.
Fire safety in buildings
Using his ‘pictorial guide on how not to comply with the FSO’, head of field operations at the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) John Davidson exposed serious fire safety issues commonly found by risk assessors, explaining how a good housekeeping regime, ‘some fire safety knowledge’ and the use of a third party certificated contractor can greatly improve fire safety in a premises.
Emphasising the duties of the responsible
person for maintenance/repair of premises and fire safety measures set out in the FSO, his
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