What is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005?
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the principal fire safety legislation for non-domestic premises in England and Wales. It places a duty on a responsible person to assess and manage fire risk.
It replaced a regime of fire certificates issued by the fire service with a duty on the person in control of premises to assess risk themselves and keep it under review. The shift matters: nobody signs the building off, and the duty is continuous rather than periodic.
It applies to workplaces and to the common parts of buildings containing more than one dwelling, which is how it reaches residential blocks whose individual flats fall outside it.
Enforcement sits with the fire and rescue authority, which can require action and prosecute where a failure is serious. What is examined in practice is the assessment, the measures it led to, and the evidence they were carried out.
In practice
A small business owner who believes fire safety is the landlord's.
They employ six people in a unit they rent, and they are a responsible person for their own workplace regardless of what the lease says.
The Order attaches duties to control over premises, and a tenant has control over the part they occupy.
Leases allocate costs. They do not allocate statutory duties.
What goes wrong in practice
- Assuming the Order does not apply because a building is residential, when it reaches the common parts.
- Treating a past fire service visit as approval, when the duty is ongoing and self-assessed.