Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [FSO]. We consider FSPs to be anyone who supplies goods or services to the fire safety industry, including – but not limited to – fire risk assessors and fire safety equipment suppliers/ engineers.
If a company is found guilty of such
offences, the courts have the power to impose an unlimited fine on them based upon their turnover. Furthermore, if you are prosecuted as an individual, this can result in a prison sentence of up to two years. FSPs are generally not the responsible person as defined in Article 3 of the FSO; instead, their liability stems from Articles 5(3) and 5(4). The FSP’s involvement with the premises and consequent relationship with the responsible person is dictated by the contractual documentation that exists between the two. No amount of clever legal disclaimers can ever disclaim criminal liability. For example, if an FSP provides a fire risk assessment which is not suitable or sufficient, or a fire alarm engineer certifies a fire alarm system as meeting the British standards when it does not, then criminal culpability may result. It is however possible to clarify the exact
nature of the involvement of the FSP with the premises and, perhaps just as importantly, define what they are not involved with. This can be done through disclaimers contained within the contractual documents, which are signed by the responsible person to ensure that they, as the responsible person, are in no doubt about the limited control passed to the FSP. For example, if the FSP has no control over the ongoing management of the premises once the report has been completed, this should be made clear in the contract between the two parties. Additionally, the FSP should not be responsible for the failure to implement significant findings. If, during the course of the FSP’s assessment, they are not satisfied with the amount of information they have regarding the management setup and running of the premises, they should say so in their report – or
18 JULY/AUGUST 2020
www.frmjournal.com
FSO in focus I
NCREASINGLY, MORE and more fire safety professionals (FSPs) are being considered for prosecution and enforcement under the
Warren Spencer points out that a greater number of fire safety professionals are now often being considered for prosecution under the FSO
at least make clear that certain information has not been provided. In my own experience, many FSPs have
inadvertently created liability for themselves under the FSO because they failed to clarify their retainer, or acted outside the remit of their contractual obligations and overextended their control by providing additional advice and/or guidance which they were never contracted for.
Who is responsible?
Where a number of people or organisations have fire risk management duties in relation to premises, there can often be confusion as to how those responsibilities are apportioned. Under Article 5(3), ‘any duty imposed by
articles 8 to 22… shall be imposed on every person other than the responsible person… who has, to any extent, control of those premises so far as the requirements relate to matters within his control’. The duties which fall under their control are explained in Article 5(4), which states the following: ‘Where a person has, by virtue of any contract or tenancy, an obligation of any extent in relation to – (a) The maintenance or repair of any premises, including anything in or on premises; or (b)The safety of any premises, that person is to be treated, for the purposes of paragraph (3), as being a person who has control of the premises to the extent that his obligation so extends.’
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