Workplace safety fire precautions

The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 add little to the existing requirements so that where appropriate fire safety measures such as ... 

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) SIN. 1541 was made on 7 June 2005. This chapter has been written on the assumption that the Order will be in force in October 2006. A summary of the Order has been included in Chapter 20. The Fire Precautions Act 1971 is repealed and The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 are revoked by the Order. The Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 are to be taken within the revised CDM regulations in April 2007. The five regulations in CHSW are likely to be removed. 

The Fire Precautions (Special Premises) Regulations 1996 The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulahons 1997 (as amended) Those parts of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 that relate to fire safety... 

Of all workplace hazards fire is probably the most universal. It causes death and severe injury to persons and, in the United Kingdom, results in financial losses of between 400 and 500 million each year. In museums a fire, unlike other hazards, does not distinguish between employee and visitor, or between priceless artifacts of antiquity and modern reproductions all are at risk. Consequently, fire precautions must assume a central position in the safety management of museums, and fire prevention should be the concern of curators, safety officers and all other grades of staff. 

The type and level of safety monitoring will depend upon the workplace precautions or controls in place. Monitoring of engineering controls such as fire detection and alarm systems will be based on formal systems such as those... 

The periodic inspections of fire safety systems are likely to be recorded within the fire log book and will be considered as part of the proactive monitoring programme, particularly as the items form a critical component of the workplace precautions or control measures that reduce the overall risk in relation to fire. 

An effective auditing programme will be able to provide a comprehensive picture of exactly how effectively and efficiently the fire safety management system is controlling fire risks. The programme should also identify when and how each of the component parts of the system will be audited. Due to the technical nature of some of the workplace precautions (e.g. detection and alarm systems, sprinklers, etc.) these may be required to be audited on a more frequent basis than other elements of the system and the auditing process should reflect this. 

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