Understanding your fire safety responsibilities

For small busineses, failure to assess risks posed by fire can lead to disastrous consequences. Significant fire incidents may result in injuries to staff or visitors, serious damage or destruction of site infrastructure, IT systems and stock, business closure and potential reputational damage.

All businesses where five or more people are employed, are mandated by law to complete and document a fire risk assessment for all fire safety measures at each site the business operates, with the responsibility resting with the site’s nominated ‘Responsible Person’ or ‘Duty Holder’.

To satisfy their legal obligations, the ‘Responsible Person/Duty Holder’ may contract the services of a professional specialist company, such as an NSI approved company, to carry out a life safety fire risk assessment.

Find out more about third party certificated Life Safety Fire Risk Assessments.

Read the full article by NSI’s Approval Schemes Manager (Systems) John Davidson in the Federation of Small Businesses magazine First Voice.