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Introduction
Historically, UK’s enforcing authorities for fire legislation (in most cases, the local Fire Authority) have tended to be somewhat reluctant to prosecute and have relied on ‘softer’ options when fire safety problems have been encountered, such as issuing ‘Enforcement Notices’ etc.
However, since the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, their approach has been bought into line with other enforcement agencies in the health and safety field (such as the H.S.E). Their role is now clearly defined as an ‘enforcement authority’ and there has been evidence of a tougher enforcement policy which involves the wider use of legal action (i.e. prosecutions)
In addition to the usual regular periodic fire safety inspections (now known as Fire Safety Audits), there are now other criteria that may trigger an immediate visit from a fire safety Inspection Officer – including 'post fire visits' - which may occur within hours of a fire being extinguished.
Offences are usually dealt with by a range of procedures from ‘Educate and Inform’ to the issuing of ‘Enforcement Notices’. Failure to comply with these notices may result in legal action. Authorities are encouraging their staff to bring more and more prosecutions.
Prosecution database
Unfortunately there is not (yet) a publicly available database of prosecutions which would allow ‘Responsible Persons’ (Those with legal fire safety responsibilities) to determine the likely consequences of ignoring fire safety legislation.
We at firerisk.net believe this is wrong. We believe that in the interests of fiscal openness and transparency, the Government should take the lead and publish the details of recent prosecutions.
Until a formal Government database is made available, we intend to display a sample of prosecutions taken from Fire Authority websites and news releases. It is intended that this list will be updated periodically. To avoid embarrassment to the business involved, details that could identify the guilty have been edited.
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