Since the RRO (Regulatory Reform Order) Fire Safety 2005 came in to force there has be a very slow rise in prosecutions, although I have noticed that recently the Brigade have really started to exercise their powers.
Having spoken to a few fire officers when they were first starting to police the act, it was clear that they were feeling their way in their new roles, its worth pointing out that the date on the order was not the date that it actually came in to force as with all things of this nature there was a period of grace.
I have subscriptions to the fire industry blogs and news portals and I have noticed that more often there are are stories about various businesses being fined under the above act.
Today I have read about a Pub chain that was fined £15,000 for the lack of a fire risk assessment, I copied the details and the story is below;
Pub company fined £15,000 in fire safety prosecution
12 February 2010
A pub management company has been convicted of offences under fire safety law following a hearing at North Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
Publicana Ltd was fined £15,000 for the offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and was ordered to pay the prosecution’s costs.
The offences came to light after Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service attended an incident at the Little George pub in New Road, Chippenham on 5 October 2008.
After an investigation by officers, charges were brought against Publicana Ltd as the tenants at that time. The company was charged with failing to carry out or record a fire risk assessment, failure to have effective policies for protection and prevention measures, and the failure to provide suitable and sufficient information to the pub’s sub-contracted licensee.
The prosecution is pursuing separate charges against an individual in connection with the case.
“It is rare for a fire and rescue service to undertake prosecutions but, on this occasion, the offences were so severe we felt it was in the public interest to pursue charges,” said group manager Julian Parsons of Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service’s technical fire safety department. “What this case has shown very clearly is that management companies always have a duty to ensure that public safety is not compromised, even if they have sub-contracted someone to act as licensee.”
He added: “Since these offences came to light, the Little George pub has changed management and subsequent inspections have shown that the issues highlighted by this case have been addressed. In addition, Publicana Ltd, which was cooperative throughout the investigation, has introduced stringent new management procedures to ensure that something like this does not happen again in premises it is responsible for.”
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Paul
