There has been significant press in recent months regarding the funding cuts to fire services across the country. The coverage has centred (quite rightly, some would say) on the number of firefighters whose jobs will be put at risk, but what about those in technical fire safety departments or enforcement, whose jobs may not be considered a similar priority?
My experience in dealing with a number of fire services is that the turnover of officers in fire safety departments is high. Most of the experienced FS officers I was dealing with as recently as three years ago have retired, with more planning to take the same route within the next 12 months.
The difficulty is that enforcement requires confidence, and confidence comes with experience. It is concerning that these departments have shrunk considerably since the implementation of the RRO, and it’s even more concerning that they are likely to shrink further.
I have carried out legal training with numerous fire services in the last five years, and I have been surprised at the number of different views toward enforcement generally. Some services favour strict enforcement of the legislation through enforcement and prohibition notices and, ultimately, prosecution. Others favour deficiency notices, action plans, and legal cautions. A considerable amount of good work has been done through partnerships with local communities, and that work can sometimes be undone by strict enforcement methods.
Education versus enforcement
What is clear, in my view, is that future enforcement policy will rely heavily upon available manpower. There simply won’t be enough officers suitably qualified to carry out enforcement duties if the government cuts are to be absorbed in the most politically friendly ways by fire services across the country.
If this is so, then decisions will have to be made as to whether educating and informing those responsible for premises will produce better results than, say, zero-tolerance enforcement. These policies lie at opposite ends of the enforcement spectrum, and neither sits comfortably with the ideology behind the Regulatory Reform Order.
Working with owners, occupiers, and employers to improve fire safety standards within their premises can produce good results when dealing with committed and conscientious responsible persons, who may not have the relevant expertise at hand or funds to buy that expertise. The problem arises with those responsible for premises who are prepared to sacrifice safety in favour of profit, and who are prepared to test the patience of fire safety officers to the limit and act responsibly only when absolutely necessary.
I have heard numerous pleas for mitigation, outlining how the defendant acted immediately to rectify breaches following a fire, an inspection, or a complaint. I have had cases where experts have argued that prosecution was not necessary, because immediate remedial action was taken following a visit by fire safety officers. My usual response is that the order was drafted to provide for prevention and planning by bestowing responsibility upon those with control of the premises, and not simply to provide for penalties for noncompliance.
If those responsible for premises take account of fire safety only when they are told to do so, then increased manpower for enforcement will be essential. My view is that there is presently insufficient manpower to enforce the order, but it would require substantially more fire safety officers than are presently available to educate and inform and work with responsible persons to ensure compliance.
I think that it is only a matter of time before fire safety enforcement is contracted out to suitably equipped enforcement companies, which will no doubt benefit from the number of retired fire safety officers to enable them to make their profits.
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This is a thought provoking article. being in the fortunate position of training both FRS FSO’s in Fire Safety, and non FRS personnel in Fire Risk Assessment, the Fire Protection Association sees both sides of the picture. Your article sets up 2 sides but I would argue that the FRA in many cases is the third party and any conflict in a meeting of minds over Fire Safety issues often occurs as a result of specialist FRA knowledge and specialist FSO knowledge, rather than between the specialist FSO and the oftentimes relatively ignorant (in terms of Fire Safety) responsible person.… Read more »
Warren Spencer has identified a challenge that the Fire Brigades’ Union has been fighting against for a number of years. It is not only that fire safety enforcement officer posts have been cut, but their training has been localised and scaled back, and a career structure in fire safety enforcement is all but non existent. In many services there is no motivation for officers to undertake CPD in fire safety enforcement because career progression means moving into another department. Fire safety enforcement risks going down the road of health and safety enforcement where the HSE is almost completely limited to… Read more »
I do accept the Union point of view regarding cuts in fire safety personnel and the impact it will have on lives. The object of the exercise is to save money and not employ “too many firfighters” who stand around doing nothing. They are doing the same to every sector except as indicated in the press, the Health service, yet having worked as a fire fighter in London and fire adviser in the NHS, they are not filling the posts in the NHS to save money as well. My concern therefore is the same as any rational thinking person who… Read more »
I wrote this article in Fire Surveyor some 27 years ago and I was surprised how much support there was for it that time. The only objection came from the Fire Brigade Union
http://issuu.com/alanfcox/docs/fire_legislation_-_scanned_document?mode=a_p
HI Alan
Is it possible to send me a pdf of that article? I would like to use it as a discussion point for some of our training.
Please let me know. No worries if not.
Steve Skarratt
Curriculum Manager – The Fire Protection Association
[email protected]
Wow, amazed you had a copy of that to hand @fireman999 . Interesting, but not necessarily surprising the FBU objected. What grounds were there objections based on, do you remember?
Private fire services provided by insurance services? Sounds far-fetched, but then it wouldn’t surprise me.
The retired firefighters would, as Warren said, undoubtedly be the first to take up the posts, but your question of what happens after 10 years time is interesting. I would have thought that once this career was established, within 10 years we would be able to establish proper training and accreditation for enforcement officers. There is evidence that shows we wouldn’t be able to do that, and evidence to the contrary. As we know, the path to properly accredited risk assessors has been a rocky one, but if we put our minds to it I’m sure private enforcement officers could… Read more »
Far fetched? Check your history….
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Insurance-Brigades-1680-1929-Birth-Service/dp/075244509X
Hm, wow, ok, I beg ignorance there! Is this a well-known thing, because I’ve genuinely never come across it before. Maybe I’m digging a deeper hole and exascerbating my ignorance. OK, so having had a quick read of this though, it still seems quite impractical now. They were disbanded due to the inefficiency according to the blurb, because small, local brigades made little sense. Well that mirrors what’s happening now but on a different scale. Numerous (13 or so?) Scottish fire services become one, for instance.
Whether it is well known or not I can’t say – I guess we tend to assume that things are common knowledge. Certainly most FRS personnel will be aware of their history. As for being inefficent, we operate in a different climate. There is little doubt that centralisation simply slows things down and generally makes them more expensive. I like the idea of a national fire service, but that is as far as it goes for me. You only have to look at the ill fated idiocy of trying to regionalise control centres to see that localism is important. I can understand… Read more »
Hi Rob,
I can’t remember on what grounds the FBU objected on I will see if I still have their reply.
Regards
Alan
I think there are many complex factors that have entwined over the years to crerate a whole fog around this debate. Firstly we can ‘blame’ the RRFSO which put a health and safety slant on fire safety enforcement – even at the time of enactment it was predicted that eventually the F&RS would become, like the H&S Executive, a responder and enforcer after the event. Secondly, we can blame various governments for not advertising and giving the legislation the prominence it deserved and not listening to the F&RS comments at the time when the RRFSO was being drafted. Thirdly, the… Read more »
Dear Alan, I was just a firefighter on a fire station 27 years ago, but I imagine that one of the FBU’s objections was based on the same fear we would have today. It is the loss of the link between fire safety knowledge and firefighter safety in burning buildings. In theory, fire safety audit officers who see firefighter risks in buildings can raise those concerns with the occupier and inform operational crews (but they can do that best if they have operational experience themselves). Secondly, operational officers can make better decisions if (for example) they know how a firefighting… Read more »
Agree with Dave, Spot on Bob. Hey and when officers from this this ‘fire prevention department’ carry out the risk assessments they could also provide a certificate to displlay in the lobby or reception and for good measure it could be called a ‘fire certificate’ (which is what Jo Public always used to think the old ones were!)Actually I don’t think there are as many ‘fat cats’ out there as we imagine. I think consultancy work will get less and less. I’ve mentioned before the hassle involved with those jack booted fire police who are still around and RP’s who don’t… Read more »
I think there is great opportunity for private company to increase their expertise in fire preventions as we have seen the current government desire and drive for private ownership of government sectos.
I think there is great opportunity for private companies to increase their expertise in fire preventions as we have seen the current government desires and drives for private ownership of government sectos.