The Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety) (RRO (Fire Safety) process began in 1993, to try to make a consistent and effective legislation.

The RRO (Fire Safety) will be a legislation designed to replace such regulations as the 1997 Fire Precautions (Workplace Regulation) and Fire Precautions Act 1971. These are just two regulations, out of 75+, that the RRO Fire Safety will replace. The RRO (Fire Safety) was originally planned to come into force in April 2006 but as mentioned in "latest news" section below, this has now slipped to October 2006.

The RRO (Fire Safety) will be a statutory requirement of General Fire Safety Care. The statutory requirement of the RRO (Fire Safety) will be that all Fire Safety Certificates are replaced with fire risk assessments. 99% of these fire risk assessments will be enforced by Local Fire Authorities (LFA). The remainder, construction and nuclear, being enforced by Health and Safety Executives (HSEs), and schools and parks being enforced by Councils.

The RRO (Fire Safety) will apply to virtually all non-domestic properties, including voluntary organisations, but Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the biggest target for the RRO (Fire Safety) enforcement and they would be most affected by this legislation. This means that every business with 5 or more people must carry out a fire risk assessment. Each business would do their own assessment, and this would be carried out by the employer of the business or, in the case of them being absent from the building then it would be the responsibility of the owner of the building to perform an assessment.

Currently, you do not need any qualifications to carry out a fire risk assessment, but under the RRO (Fire Safety), the individual performing the assessment must be competent to perform it. If the responsible individual does not feel competent to carry out a fire risk assessment, then they may employ someone else to do it for them. This contracted individual will then be liable if the fire risk assessment was deemed to be inadequate, but the employer could also be liable if the enforcement agency believed that the responsible individual had not taken sufficient care in employing that contractor.

Once a risk assessment is carried out, it then has to be reviewed frequently and made available for inspections. If during the inspections process, the employer agrees with the LFAs that there should be a change but cannot agree how to implement any changes, these disputes will be referred to the Secretary of State who will make the final decision. This forms part of the “Technical Dispute” clause.

Once the review of the assessment has been carried out and recommendations have been made, the employer must make changes; if they fail to do this then a notice will be served. If they do not adhere to the notice and fail to carry out the changes, they will then be fined. If they do not pay the fine and still fail to carry out any changes then this would result in imprisonment, specifically around any life risks.

Hotels and boarding houses, factories, offices, railway premises and shops and retail all currently need to give fire certificates to their insurers, and when the new legislation comes into place, they will have to provide their insurers with the fire risk assessment to replace the old fire certificate.

The big news is that the commencement date for the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) has been delayed. A new date has been announced in October 2006. This would bring it in line with the HSE's policy of releasing regulatory changes in either April or October. The Government committed to releasing the guides three months in advance of the new legislation and this is what has led to the RRO being delayed. The ODPM have released a written statement explaining the future of the reform.

The ODPM Minister responsible for fire safety, Jim Fitzpatrick, said in a written statement:

"During the passage of the Order it was of concern to the House that business and enforcers should have adequate time to familiarise themselves with the new regime and the guidance that will accompany it and that the coming into force date should, so far as practicable, be timed to coincide as closely as possible with reform of fire safety laws in Scotland. Despite extensive work with stakeholders it is clear that all the guidance documents will not be ready for a full 12 week gap between publication and coming into force on 1 April 2006.

In the light of the commitments we have given to the House and our commitment to ensuring this reform is properly backed, we have therefore concluded that the coming into force of the substantive provisions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order should be put back.

The Government will now bring an Order, under article 52 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 , to amend the coming into force date of the new regime before the House as quickly as possible".

Recently, the Scottish Authorities announced that more time should be allowed for reform North of the Border and the new rules in Scotland are now expected to come into force in October 2006 at the earliest.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Health and Safety Spokesperson, Mary Boughton, said:

"This is an important reform and it is therefore vital that it is implemented successfully. People's lives could depend on it. Many of our members will be ready for the original date, which will mean that they will be compliant well in advance, but it also allows those that are coming to terms with this reform on top of their everyday business concerns more time to comply and to seek advice where necessary."

The ODPM is working with stakeholders on a publicity strategy to raise awareness of the new laws amongst those affected. There will also be a series of guides published to assist those preparing fire risk assessments.