Posted By Jim-F How do I go about getting a Fire certificate? we have 44 people working our office, is it the Fire service who issue them?

Posted By Terry Reading Jim It is the fire service that issue the certificates, but with the imminent changes to the legislation - which will no longer require fire certificates - you may find that the local brigade will tell you that the time it takes to issue a certificate is longer than the legislation requiring it is expected to remain in force. A quick phone call should get the answer from them as to whether it is worth sending in an application form. If you are not aware that the legislation is changing then in summary, fire authorities will shortly no longer be issuing fire certificates. Insted the emphasise will be on fire safety risk assessments and the fire service will expect this to be completed by you and will scrutinise it to ensure it is sufficient. As you are already required by law to complete a fire risk assessment, then if I were you I would go down this route before you apply for any certificate. Any fire safety inspector will probably ask to see a fire risk assessment, if you do decide to apply for a certificate, when they come to inspect your premises. Besides, carrying out a proper assessment should identify any deficiences that they will ask for following any inspection. Hope this helps. T.

Posted By David Sinclair Jim, I stongly recommend you go through the motions of obtaining a Fire Certificate from your local authority fire brigade. You have to take the law as it currently stands and there may be insurance, employment law and health and safety implications of you not having a certificate, which will be mitigated once you have made an application. If you need further details/advice, please contact me directly. Regards. David