Are you the Responsible Person?

Duty 1

Fire risk assessment — and keeping it current

Everything else flows from this. You have to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the fire risks to the people who use or work in the building, then put in place the precautions it identifies. It isn't a one-off: it has to be reviewed regularly, and again whenever there is reason to think it's no longer valid or the premises, equipment or the way people use the building significantly change. That includes extensions and remodels.

If you employ five or more people (or the premises are licensed, or an alterations notice requires it), you also have to record the significant findings and who is at particular risk.

Duty 2

Weekly fire alarm test

If your building has a fire alarm, it has to be tested every week. The point isn't to test every device — it's to prove the control panel can still receive an alarm and sound the sounders, and that the signal reaches the alarm receiving centre (ARC) if you have one.

How it's done: operate one manual call point, during normal working hours, at about the same time each week so that people learn to tell a test from the real thing. Use a different call point every week, so that over time every call point in the building gets tested in rotation. If the system is monitored by an ARC, contact them immediately before and after the test to avoid an unwanted call-out. The alarm should sound for at least 5 seconds but not normally more than 60. And write the result down, along with which call point you used.

If people work only at night or weekends and never hear the daytime test, the standard recommends an additional test at least monthly so they become familiar with the signal.

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Duty 3

Fire alarm inspection and servicing

On top of your weekly test, the system needs a proper inspection and service by a competent person roughly every six months — the standard treats anything from five to seven months after the last visit as acceptable. At each visit the engineer checks the logbook for unresolved faults, looks at whether changes to the building have affected the system, and tests the system. You should get a certificate afterwards.

The standard describes competence as specialist knowledge of fire detection and alarm systems, including the causes of false alarms; third-party certification under a UKAS-accredited scheme is one recognised way to show it (it isn't the only way, and it isn't a legal requirement).

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Duty 4

Fire extinguishers

You must make sure the building has appropriate firefighting equipment, and keep it in working order. That means the right types in the right places, regular visual checks that each one is where it should be, accessible, undamaged, with its safety pin and seal intact and its pressure gauge in the working range, and an annual service by a competent person. HM Government's guidance lists the position-and-condition check as a weekly job.

Missing, discharged or damaged extinguishers should be reported, recorded and replaced or serviced straight away.

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Duty 5

Emergency lighting

Where routes need emergency lighting for when normal lighting fails, it has to work when needed. A quick functional test is needed at least monthly; each luminaire needs a full rated-duration test at least once a year, plus a visual inspection. Full-duration tests discharge the batteries, so they're done when the building is empty or at a time of minimal risk, or by testing only alternate luminaires at once. If something fails, a competent person repairs it, and you need interim safety measures until it's retested, such as extra vigilance, safety patrols or torches.

Results of tests and repairs go in the emergency lighting logbook.

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Duty 6

Fire doors and escape routes

Escape routes and the exits they lead to must be kept clear at all times. Emergency doors must open in the direction of escape and must never be locked or fastened so that they can't be opened easily and immediately. Routes and exits need signs, and emergency lighting where needed. Day to day that means checking that nothing is stored in corridors or stairwells, that bolts, padlocks and other security devices come off fire exits when the building is in use, and that doors on escape routes swing freely and close fully.

Fire doors should be checked regularly — HM Government guidance suggests monthly — to confirm they're in good working order, close properly, and have intact frames and seals.

Residential buildings. If a building contains two or more homes, you must give residents information about the importance of fire doors: keep them shut, don't tamper with self-closing devices, and report faults. That goes to new residents as soon as reasonably practicable after they move in, and to all residents at least once every 12 months. If the building is over 11 metres high you must also check the self-closing devices on communal fire doors at least every 3 months, and on flat entrance doors at least every 12 months, and keep a record, including any attempts to gain access that were refused.

Duty 7

The logbook — what to record

A logbook is the evidence that you've done what the law asks. HM Government guidance says keeping records of maintenance helps you show the enforcing authority you comply. For a fire alarm, BS 5839‑1 says it should contain at least:

• Who in your premises management has been delegated responsibility for the system
• Brief details of the maintenance arrangements
• The date and time of every fire alarm signal — false alarm, test, drill or real fire — with the device and its location
• The cause, circumstances and category of every false alarm
• The date, time and type of every test (including each weekly test and the call point used)
• The date, time and type of every fault and defect
• The date and type of all maintenance, whether a service visit or non-routine attention
• Any agreed variations from the standard

It should be accessible to everyone who needs to see it, and can be paper or digital. Emergency lighting needs its own logbook entries, and extinguishers and fire doors need records of their checks and services.

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Duty 8

False alarm records

Every false alarm should be investigated and recorded — not just reset and forgotten. BS 5839‑1 splits them into four categories: unwanted alarms (a system responding as designed to cooking fumes, steam, dust, accidental damage, or testing without warning), equipment false alarms (a genuine fault), malicious false alarms, and false alarms with good intent (someone honestly believed there was a fire). It's a common misconception that most come from faulty equipment; most are unwanted alarms. If you don't know the cause, record it as unknown rather than assuming a fault.

For each one, the standard recommends recording:

• Date and time
• The device and its location, if known
• The category of false alarm, if known
• The reason, if known — or the activity in the area, if it isn't
• The action taken on the cause
• Whether the fire and rescue service were called, and whether they attended
• Who recorded it

Your servicing engineer should work out the false alarm rate at every service visit, per 100 detectors over the previous 12 months, and record it. A preliminary investigation is recommended if the rate is over 4 per 100 detectors a year, if there have been more than 10 since the last service visit, or if more than one has come from the same device since then. An in-depth investigation by specialists is recommended, for systems with more than 40 detectors, if the rate goes over 5 per 100 detectors a year or if any single device causes more than two in a rolling 12 months; for smaller systems (40 or fewer detectors), if more than two false alarms occur in any rolling 12 months.

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