From a legal perspective, all businesses must abide by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005/Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. The buildings must meet the required standards and all staff must have adequate fire safety training. Of course, you may also have specific fire requirements related to your industry to think about. However, regardless of other considerations, every business in the UK must have adequate fire safety procedures and training.

Training typically needs to include:

• Induction training to cover general fire awareness
• Periodic refresher training, or extra training where the level of fire risk increases as a result of changes in your procedures
• Training to support people in meeting their fire safety duties – particularly in specialist environments
• Training to build appropriate skills such as fire risk assessment, fire warden or using fire extinguishers

However, this is not the full story. You will also need to assess and account for any aspects of fire safety relating specifically to your facility and, most importantly, the continued safety of your staff and the public. Some things to think about are:

• Have you, and your team (including any shift teams) read and understood your fire safety policy?
• Do you and all your team know the locations of fire assembly points and fire exits?
• Do you know what you would do if an exit route is blocked by fire?
• Is there sufficient general knowledge of the use of safety equipment?
• Have you fully planned for variables such as visitors or temporary staff in a fire emergency?
• Have you fully accounted for the difficulties that may be encountered by someone with mobility challenges?
• Have you remembered that all your team, including agency workers, should be aware of fire safety?
• Are you making sure your fire doors and other safety equipment are checked and meeting the required standards?
• Do you have enough documentation and awareness of CoSHH hazards?
• Do your policies also include fire prevention?
• Are you sure you could account for all visitors and staff in an evacuation?
• Have you prepared a grab bag for each shift or key area?

For more information on this topic, see our blog Fire Safety in the Workplace.