The perversities of the UK legal system mean that some areas of law are regionalised. One of them is fire safety. What does this mean in practice if you do business in Scotland?
Principle fire legislation
Fire safety law is constructed differently in Scotland than it is in England and Wales. So there’s no Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO). Instead there’s the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).
The Act describes the legal status and powers of fire and rescue services as well as containing, within Part 3, the duties of employers, those in control of non-domestic premises, and also employees. The duties are set out in broad terms, e.g., conducting a fire safety risk assessment and the implementation of fire safety arrangements. The Regulations cover the details and include requirements to provide fire fighting facilities, maintain safe means of escape, provide information and training, ensure the availability of competent assistance, cooperation, and coordination in shared workplaces, and so on.
Employee duties
Employees’ duties are, under the Act, to take reasonable care of themselves and others with respect to fire risk, and to cooperate with their employers. Furthermore, under the Regulations they must alert their employers to any immediate dangers or other shortfalls relating to fire safety.
Although the construction of the legislation differs from that of England and Wales, the outcome, in terms of employer and employee responsibilities are essentially the same. In fact the wording is precisely the same in most cases.
Responsible people
The main difference is that within the FSO a ‘Responsible Person’ (RP) role is defined, but no such role is included within the Scottish law. The RP is the employer, if a workplace is to any extent within the employer’s control. In the absence of an employer, the ‘person’ in control of an undertaking at the premises is the RP. And as a final resort, the owner is the RP. The allocation of the role is hierarchical in England and Wales.
In Scottish law, the lack of this role creates a subtle variance. In Scotland all parties with any control share responsibility to the extent of their control (Section 54, Fire (Scotland) Act 2005). So for example, the landlord of a building in England can devolve responsibility for most aspects of fire safety to the tenant, but in Scotland this only applies to the extent of the tenant’s control, which may leave the landlord with significant responsibilities.
Guidance
As in England, the Scottish law is supported by guidance documents. The contents of these are very similar to the England and Wales ones published by the Communities and Local Government Department, the main difference being, somewhat inconveniently, that the Scottish government sector specific guides are only published online. So take care if, like me, you use your handy English printed guide as a first port of call. There are subtle differences in wording, some of which make a difference.
The Scottish sector-specific guidance documents are available for a smaller range of premises types. England and Wales guides not replicated by the Scottish Government include: animal premises and stables; means of escape for disabled people; open-air events and venues; and theatres, cinemas, and similar premises. There are also some guides where a single document covers the ground work of several in the England and Wales set — Places of Entertainment and Assembly, for example, is a single document rather than being split into versions for small and large venues.
Building regulations
The governance of building works and alterations differs slightly in Scotland. There is specific Scottish legislation (the primary legislation being The Building (Scotland) Act 2003) and a different system of guidance. Instead of Approved Documents there are Technical Handbooks. For example, in England and Wales, Approved Document B provides information on the fire safety requirements for buildings, whereas in Scotland you would refer to Section 2 of the Technical Handbook. The planning and building control process is also slightly different.
What else?
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the many regulations made under it, apply equally to Scotland as they do to England and Wales. So, for example, the following health and safety laws apply the same regardless of where you are:
Enforcement
On 1 April 2013 the eight fire and rescue services across Scotland were amalgamated into a single, new Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
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I think from the fire safety point of view it does make a lot of the sense have a same fire legislation… across the land as it would be more easy to comply and follow… but almost same problem we have in Canada as each province have it own rules of Fire Safety and they almost the same but few things is different…
Yes quite right. I was working in Alberta and British Columbia last year and my experiences within the UK, prepared me well for your regional differences! What do you find are the main discrepancies?
in the identification of the fire safety stationshow often equipment need to be testededucation level of the employees responsible for the fire safetyin some provinces – they have no idea they got designated as fire safety personnel for emergency…. not even on paper…
I think from the fire safety point of view it does make a lot of the sense have a same fire legislation… across the land as it would be more easy to comply and follow
@Alexander Stephens, true. I think its always better to have same fire legislation. I think what needs to be done is take the best of the legislation from both the versions and bring final legislation.
thank you, in my books unified standards in Fire Safety Legislation create better compliancebetter compliance create better safety and faster response time… also less retraining need it if workers get moved from place to place in case of mining industry or oil drilling…