Posted By James Fielding Where I work for some time they have said that people can't work on the top floor because there is only one staircase and a lift (there are no external fire exits e.g. spiral stair cases). Access on the top floor is limited as the building is cut in two by a locked door. So people on the top floor have access to either the lift or the stairs depending on which side they are on. About a year ago a filming studio was set up on the side that is accessed by the lift. This has about 3 people in it all day some days but usually there is just one person lets say for 3 hours a day. The other side of the building had two meeting rooms in that were in use about 40% of the time by about 4-12 people at a time. Recently they have converted one of the meeting rooms into an office that will have 2 people in during the working day all day. As they explained things to us previously this would be illegal as there was insufficient fire exit provision. I am quite concerned about this at the moment and was wondering if any of you could give me some indication over whether they are breaking the law (in which case I should look into it further and / or make a fuss about it) or whether the law is vague and so it is entirely legal. I am aware that new fire legislation comes into effect soon (October?) so it would be handy to know whether the legal status of what they are doing will change soon or not... I have spent about an hour reading various legislation online but it all seemed quite vague about what was sufficient in terms of fire exits. I also don't know what legislation to read, there seems to be so much of it - should I be reading something to do with fire safety or some kind of general building regulation stuff? We work in an old listed building, and there are about 25 employees (if that affects things).

Posted By James Fielding I have checked the door today and discovered that it is not actually locked. So the question becomes more about whether a single internal stair well is legal.

Posted By James Fielding you don't say how many floors or what the travel distances to the single stair is. The general rule is that there should be two exit routes available for storeys where the floor is more than 11m above ground but there are several factors to consider such as whether the stairs are lobby protected, the type of fire detection and alarm system etc. The meeting room that has been converted into an office is the second floor (as in ground, first, second) while the other room being used is on the third floor. The room on the second floor is about 6m from the stairwell, the room on the third floor is about 30m from the stairwell. The stairwell and all the floors are carpetted throughout (I don't know what if any difference this makes). As I am just a concerned employee I don't know the answers to someone of your questions in detail... I do know that we don't have a protected lobby, and that the fire detection / alarm system we have is fairly basic.