Rank: Super forum user 
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Our organisation has, due to the general lack of money started to rent out spare labs and offices to other employers.
We are not renting out discrete blocks or building but individual offices and labs. This means that the new tenants are sharing our corridors etc, which of course are our fire and other emergency escape routes.
The question I am asking is who should take the lead on organising these evacuations, in particular who is responsible for any PEEPS (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans) that might be required. I believe that this is the responsibility of the tenants: their staff their responsibility but others have pointed out the we (as the largest entity on the site) need reassurance that everybody is being evacuated during an emergency and that none of our staff is put at any unnecessary risk due to the failure of other employers on our site to do their duty in relation to their staff. We know that there is a duty for employers to co-operate and co-ordinate (reg 11 The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations), but what does this actually mean on the ground?
What do other organisations do in similar situations? Does one organisation take the lead for all others on the site or do you leave it to each employer and hope that they do something?
If it does go wrong, who takes the blame? Us them, everybody?
Note, that we are not only the biggest persons on site but we are the only ones with full time H&S support on site. The others are small business with only a couple of employees.
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Rank: Forum user
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The requirement to share information also appears in the Fire Regs.
Fire Safety (Scotland) Regs state:
Provision of information to employers and the self-employed from outside undertakings
Reg 19.—(1) A person with duties under section 53 or 54 must ensure that the employer of any
employees from an outside undertaking who are working in the relevant premises is provided with
comprehensible and relevant information on–
(a) the risks to those employees; and
(b) the fire safety measures taken by the person with duties under section 53 or 54.
(2) A person with duties under section 53 or 54 must ensure that any person working in his or
her undertaking who is not his or her employee is provided with appropriate instructions and
comprehensible and relevant information regarding any risks to that person.
(3) A person with duties under section 53 or 54 must–
(a) ensure that the employer of any employees from an outside undertaking who are working
in the relevant premises is provided with sufficient information to enable that employer to
identify any person nominated by the person with duties under section 53 or 54 in
accordance with regulation 14(1)(b) to implement evacuation procedures as far as those
employees are concerned; and
(b) take all reasonable steps to ensure that any person from an outside undertaking who is
working in the relevant premises receives sufficient information to enable that person to
identify any person nominated by the person with duties under section 53 or 54 in
accordance with regulation 14(1)(b) to implement evacuation procedures as far as they
are concerned.
You must givethem information, they must act on it and they must demonstrate that they have an effectice PEEP in place where required and also that they can evacuate all staff.
A joint meeting should allow you to iron all of this out and make it easier to coordinate the whole evacuation process to everybodies satisfaction.
Hope this is of use.
Son Of Skywalker
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Rank: Forum user
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A Kurdziel wrote:
If it does go wrong, who takes the blame? Us them, everybody?
In my experience when it goes wrong then all parties can be called to account and be asked to justify what provisions they had in place; with these controls being dependent obviously being largely down to the amount of control they had of course.
Therefore the contractual agreements for letting of labs should make WHO is responsible for WHAT very clear.
IMHO then they would/should be responsible for evacuation of their staff, but as they will be using shared escape routes etc then some co-operation/co-ordination will of course be necessary; as you need to be aware of their arrangements and they need to be aware of your arrangements.
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Rank: Forum user
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We share a building with the buildings owners and they ask all the tenants annually to update them on the number of people requiring PEEPS and check that we have made arrangements for them to to be evacuated safely. Originally they asked for the reason for PEEP but we were unwilling to give that however they do need the info on how we are going to evacuate.
They also ask for our fire risk assessment for the area we use (we use more rooms than they do).
As your tenants are smaller organisations you could perhaps give them a PEEP template for their use and ask them to advise on numbers etc?
I would think that checking routes clear etc maybe still lies with you with a system of letting them know when/if they've blocked a routes etc.
have a tenants meeting and discuss with them your concerns and the level of H&S 'compliance' that you are wishing.
I'd also include what they are doing within their units/offices so that it isn't endangering your employees.
You don't want to be preventing an explosion in your labs to find they are inappropriately storing loads of chemicals in their unit.
Lilian
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