Competent Advice, Policies and Guidance

Increasing legislation relating to Fire Safety has imposed responsibilities on owners, employers and others who have control of premises. USC has available a core of highly competent specialist Fire Safety Consultants who can provide a full range of services.

The Fire Safety Consultancy services include:

• Provision of advice on all aspects of Fire Risk Management.
• Provision of Fire Safety Policy Documents, Local Fire Policies and Codes of Practice in accordance with legislation.
• Fire Risk Assessments, Inspections and Audits of areas.
• Technical Surveys.
• Assessments of training needs for all levels.
• Incident investigation and reporting.
• Provision of advice on the design of work areas.

To have an effective Fire Safety Management System it is essential to have a clear, credible and easily understood Fire Safety Policy. This policy may be written for smaller organisations at the corporate level only. For larger organisations a corporate level policy supplemented with a local level policy is appropriate . Either way the policy must fully reflect the needs of the organisation.

USC has been producing Policies, Codes of Practice and Local Rules in consultation with employers for the last 25 years. Policies must be authoritative, unambiguous and easily understood. There must be no doubt on what the organisation’s arrangements are in the event of a fire.

Incident Investigation

Any Fire Alarm requires investigation. An alarm may be the result of a malfunction or careless behavior by a member of staff. If neither the occupants or the building are in immediate danger the investigation is usually fairly simple. A responsible person can carry this out and take action to minimise the likelihood of a recurrence. In other cases an alarm will be the result of an incident where both staff and buildings have been put at risk. This requires a professional review.

Our fire safety consultants are all professionals and skilled in dealing with such incidents. We aim to establish the facts and underlying causes and provide where necessary advice information and training to help reduce the chance of a repetition.

Fire Safety Risk Assessment

The Loss Prevention Council reported in 1997 that 46% of fires in industrial and commercial buildings were attributed to arson.  Where a fire occurred in a small business 87% of such businesses went into liquidation within 12 months of reopening. Therefore it is vitally important that Fire Safety Risk Assessments are carried out. Such assessments will looks at:

• the risk to an organisation of a fire occurring,
• the means of escape for staff and
• the minimisation of damage.

As from October 2006 the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into effect. Under the order the Responsible Person must carry out a Fire Safety Risk Assessment and based on that assessment take appropriate action to minimise risk. if 5 or more persons are employed the risk assessment must be in writing.

A Responsible Person may be defined as:

• the person responsible for a business premises;
• an employer or self employed person with a business premises;
• a dwelling used in part solely as a business premises;
• a charity or voluntary organisation and
• others who have a degree of control over any premises e.g. a contractor.

USC has been providing Fire Safety Risk Assessments since 1999 when the Regulations at that time made Fire Safety Risk Assessments mandatory. The new 2005 Regulations have made the requirements stricter and enforcement action by the competent authorities is likely where Fire Safety Risk Assessments have not been produced.

Fire Safety Audits and Inspections

Our Fire Safety Consultancy division will systematically and critically examine your workplace and your activities to determine the risk of fire to your staff, visitors and buildings.

A report identifying significant fire hazards and risks will be produced with a prioritised action plan for removing or reducing these risks as much as is possible. The plan will also identify how to comply with any statutory breaches and best practices.

The Audits / inspections will complement your organisation’s Fire Safety Risk Assessment.