Keeping your property compliant: Fire risk assessments

With most business premises seeing a reduction in occupancy levels resulting from the current restrictions, property managers have been looking at what activities should continue at their premises to ensure they meet health, safety and fire requirements.  

“Our teams have been consulted on many of these aspects since the UK went into lockdown” advises Andy James, Senior Technical Director at RPS. “We are advising clients on the need for statutory planned maintenance, the inspection of fire alarms, water systems, lifts and lifting equipment and the continued requirement for fire, health and safety and legionella risk assessments”.

During these challenging times, duty-holders still have a legal responsibility to ensure their buildings remain compliant, and they should continue to carry out statutory maintenance, inspections and assessments. These legal responsibilities exist to help manage the significant hazard that the failure of equipment or systems can present, and reduce the risk of harm to workers and others. It is not the case that such activities can just stop, even under the current exceptional circumstances.

While there may be some difficulties with fully completing statutory maintenance programmes due to the present restrictions, including the availability of engineers and maintenance staff, duty-holders should be making every effort to maintain compliance and a safe environment in their buildings, while also applying the public health advice to protect those undertaking such activities.

If you have any questions relating to your individual buildings or specific advice relating to health and safety compliance, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.