I would like your opinion if possible on the requirements of having an evacuation chairs. We have a new building which is 2 storey and are looking at putting them in, thought the question of legal requirement has been raised.

I would not get evacuation chairs "just in case". We have one for first aid use but unless we had someone disabled we would not provide any others.

We have got the possibility of people on site who will be disabled as we run a school and they will be based on the 2nd storey! Unfortunately we have not got any way round this as that was how the building was planned. We have also had a request for a permanent room hire with a group who work with people with head injuries and therefore may need assistance with the evacuation in the event of an emergency! Thank you for all your comments it is really helpful!

In my opinion, evacuation chairs are massively overpriced & in the main, underutilised, gathering dust in their smart protective jackets of many stair landings! From experience, suppliers will suggest that you have one on each stair landing "just in case" you get a visitor to that particular floor & if you do decide to purchase any, then take a pragmatic view before you open up your chequebook. At my previous employer we did decide to buy a few & some of us were trained to train others in their use. I still remember the dreaded words of the instructor to "launch the chair with gusto" from the top step. It takes nerves (& strength) do so, & similar nerves to allow somebody to push you off that top step! One of our wheelchair users initially declined to agree to use them & declared that instead he would come down the stairs on his bottom if necessary (not actually the word he used!).

I have recently purchased 28 expensive evac chairs (although I got a good discount & with a train the trainer session thrown in). The buildings these chairs are required for are large and have been assessed as needing them (by me). I am surprised that so many posts here talk about them being a waste of time, gather dust etc. That is hardly any justification for not having them. If a suitable + sufficient FRA says they are required - based on need, the fact they may not ever get used should not really be considered. The buildings in my portfolio have 1000s of extinguishers, dry risers, sprinklers, emergency lighting - all sitting there 'gathering dust' and the vast majority of this kit will never be used in anger. but it's all needed to drive down risk I know this is politically incorrect, but the whole DDA issue can be a pain - especially and particularly in smaller buildings. But even small buildings may contain lots of disabled punters, so its all about risk and need, and not about whether it gathers dust If dust is an issue, sack the cleaners - don't automatically get rid of the kit!!!!

I would identify the requirement through a PEEP not the Fire Risk Assessment. In the FRA I would ask if there are disabled persons who require help evacuating and whether a PEEP was in place to identify the specifics for evacuation on a case by case basis. At this stage you can identify exactly what is required. Don't pre-judge that an evac chair is the answer. If you do insist on evac chairs it is perfectly acceptable to have evac teams with quick access to evac chair, hoist etc and these can then be transported to the area covered by the evac team. I have run this past Fire and Rescue Service Fire Safety Officers and they were more than happy with the set up. This allowed us to be compliant with the regs but also to avoid purchasing equipment that would never be used. It also allowed a smaller dedicated team to be trained rather than wasting money on training lots of people who would never use the training in real life.