Appreciate views on Fire Strategies and whether a building (non-dwelling) is required to have one in place. If the strategy cannot be found, does one need to be completed retrospectively under the RRO?  The building has a detailed fire risk assessment in place and has only been completed recently.  Would this not suffice?

The Fire Stratagy is a really useful tool, when it comes to understanding total capacity per square footage, escape routes available and the means of keeping all users safe. It provides allot of information which can be used for various reasons and is tailored specifically to the property.

It is also a legal requirement under Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Be careful here as I have had one enforcement agency request a strategy which - in there words - was required by Article 11 of the FSO which states:

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Fire safety arrangements

11.—(1) The responsible person must make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the size of his undertaking and the nature of its activities, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures.

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But I was able to convince the Inspecting Officer that my FRA document was detailed and contained all of the elements of effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures within its pages. He wasnt a happy bunny and said it was his enforcemnt agency's policy to seek a strategy for larger premises.

 I suggested that he write to me with details of that policy as I felt Aticle 11 was covered within the FRA and was reluctant to spend hours repeating the information on a duplicate document - especially when IMHO it was not required by the legislation

That was two months before lockdown. I did not receive an e-mail but have heard some enforcement authorities now want considerably more detail that the average PAS79 provides for

To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

I suppose everyone has heard that by now.

A Strategy is simply a Plan and depends on everything to do with the premises.  It could be a simple line drawing showing the site with fire exits and routes, fire fighting equipment, assembly point, what do do when discovering a fire etc etc etc.

If a complex premises the Plan needs to be Complex to suit the needs of the occupants with regard to means of escape, what to do in case of emergency, how to do it, what various alarms mean, who are responsible for organising escape etc etc etc.

It may be that a number of Plans are necessary that split the premises into Sections, each with their own Plan.

I could go on but the above are my thoughts, but please don't overcook the Plan.

Originally Posted by: A Kurdziel

The HSE comes in for a lot of stick but at least  know how to apply the law and do not go off and try to create their own laws, which some enforcers are trying to do,  which as everybody knows is ultra vires. A risk assessment is what is says in the legislation. There is no requirement in the fire safety order for something called a fire strategy. Perhaps they are finding it difficult to work out what an organisation actually does in relation to fire safety and not being very good at auditing they are demanding that that it all be presented to them as a single document call “a fire strategy”  but there is no legal requirement for people to do that. The aim of a risk based approach is that businesses come up with their own systems manage the risk and this includes the documentation.

Strictly speaking there is no need for a document called a Fire Risk Assessment all that is required is that they record “the significant findings of the assessment, including the measures which have been or will be taken by the responsible person pursuant to this Order;” , which is basically  the same as what is required under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

What is a concern is that different fire authorities are applying, what are supposed to be the same national rules in different ways.  

Spot on! Some are abusing their authourity and making up as hey go along

It doesnt help that so many enforcers are trained on the PAS 79 FRA report format and get confused thinking that is the only method of recording an FRA

One major enforcing authority (clue, they are not a fire service) wanted a copy of one of my FRAs which I record on a template that I designed.  This template is a hybrid of scores of FRA reports that I 'liberated' when emptying a fire service store room after the digitisation of its records

An Inspecting Officer said my FRA version was not acceptable - even though they accepted that the information recorded far exceeded the legal requirement of 'significant findings'. I entered politely into a debate with this jobsworth and asked if it is not acceptable, does this mean you will be issuing an enforcement notice?, adding that I look forward to heading up an appeal

He then revealed that my FRA format didnt fit well withing a recording system his employer were using. I queried whether the inadequacies of their system would warrant legal action against me and my employer - and he said he would think about it

To be a pain in the backside, I sent a paper version of the FRA in to the enforcing authority (they asked for an electronic one) and asked for a receipt. That's the last I heard from him  :)

I had a chat yesterday with a FRS safety officer about an issue in his city, he mentioned I should ask for a copy of the FRA and I asked him about a fire management plan.  He said yes ask for one if there is one.