carried out a prosecution, but that it has not been reported or factored in. Whether the audits and inspections carried
out by HMICFRS will impact upon FRS policies or appetites for prosecutions remains to be seen. The most relevant question asked by inspectors with regard to this was how effective the FRS was at protecting the public through regulation of fire safety. This was one of five questions asked to establish the effectiveness of FRSs at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks. The inspectors considered three areas in this regard: • the risk based approach • enforcement – which involved training and the issuing of prohibition and enforcement notices/prosecutions ‘working with others’
• Audit results
Not surprisingly, the findings confirmed similar disparities in enforcement practice following inspections: 22 FRSs were found to be ‘good’, 22 were found to ‘require improvement’ and three were rated as ‘inadequate’. Not one fire service was found to be ‘outstanding’ in this area. Was there any correlation between the
number of prosecutions taken and the inspector’s findings? Not really. Two of the top five authorities for taking prosecutions were found to ‘require improvement’ and one of the authorities that had
Fire and rescue service West Midlands
Greater Manchester Lancashire
Greater London North Yorkshire
Devon and Somerset Cheshire
West Yorkshire Avon
Surrey
Buckinghamshire Cumbria Derbyshire East Sussex Hampshire
Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Merseyside
Tyne and Wear Essex County
never taken a prosecution was found to be ‘good’. Therefore, it is clear that the taking of prosecutions is not the only key performance indicator when considering the protection of the public through regulation of fire safety. There is no doubt that the press has already
shown considerable interest in the findings of the inspections, and there have already been management consequences in some authorities following publication of the results. Whether the public scrutiny of these findings and figures will impact upon policy decisions and appetites for prosecutions within FRSs remains to be seen. Even Her Majesty’s Inspectors noted that the funding of FRSs clearly impacted upon their findings. If improvements are to be made, extra funding will be required, even if the funding places FRSs in the same position as they were before budget cuts were made seven or eight years ago. What is clear from the prosecution statistics and the HMICFRS findings is that the enforcement of the FSO since 2006 has been, and is likely to remain, something of a postcode lottery
Warren Spencer is managing director and fire safety solicitor at Blackhurst Budd Solicitors. For more information, view page 3
You can view the latest statistics referenced here at
https://bit.ly/2tDtQCO and the HMICFRS data at
https://bit.ly/2SXFfrX
Number of FSO prosecutions 133 80 69 52 34 33 32 27 23 18 16 14 14 14 14 13 13 13 13 12
www.frmjournal.com JUNE 2020 27
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