I am having a bit of a senior moment - can somebody clarify whether I am correct in the following:

Emergency lighting should be tested and maintained annually by a competent person.

The RRO does not specify the frequency of maintenance, but in terms of emergency lighting this comes under the BS5266 Code of Practice that occupiers/ responsible persons must abide by. BS5266 states that emergency lighting should be maintained annually. (I have not got a copy of BS5266).

Many thanks.

From memory (happy to be corrected!) a daily 'look see' (i.e. LED is working), monthly test to see that lights and annual full test and drain.

Just being pedantic, Resp Persons do not have to 'abide' by British standards, although most UK enforcers will use them as the primary 'benchmarking' standard. EU, US or other worldwide standards can be used if the enforcement authority accept that give similar result.

Even when using British standards, it is acceptable to vary away from parts of the BS if it can be justified or the risk controlled by alternative control measures. In one one of the buildings I look after we exceeded the BS5839 staff search time, and in another - we have disconnected the manual call points from the fire alarm system and placed them on a local alarm to prevent false alarms. Both of these measures have been accepted by the relevant enforcing authorities

So don't fall into a trap that BS is mandatory and non flexible. In my experience, enforcing authorities are quite flexible, as long as you communicate the variation you have introduced & the corresponding mitigating control measures in an effective manner.

Decimonal,

I've PM'd you