The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places legal responsibility for fire safety in virtually every non-domestic building on the “responsible person” — usually the employer, owner or occupier. You must carry out and record a fire risk assessment, provide appropriate detection and warning, maintain escape routes and equipment, train staff, and review it all regularly. Enforcement is by the fire and rescue authority, and penalties range from enforcement notices to unlimited fines and imprisonment.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places specific responsibilities on business owners. Here is what you need to know to stay compliant, without the jargon.
Who is the responsible person?
In a workplace, the employer. In other premises, whoever has control: the owner, landlord, occupier or managing agent. In multi-occupied buildings there are usually several responsible persons — each tenant for their demise, the landlord for common parts — and the law expects them to cooperate and share information. Since the Building Safety Act's Section 156 amendments took effect in October 2023, that duty to coordinate, and to record the assessment in full, is explicit.
The core duties
- Carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment — and record it in full, including who did it and their competence
- Provide appropriate fire detection and warning for the building and its occupants
- Maintain means of escape, emergency lighting, signage and fire-fighting equipment
- Plan for emergencies and train staff, including fire drills
- Maintain all fire safety systems and keep evidence of testing and servicing
- Review the assessment regularly and whenever the building, its use or its occupants change
What “appropriate detection” means in practice
The Order does not name a specific alarm system; it requires what the risk assessment justifies. In practice, that is delivered through BS 5839-1, which defines system categories from M (manual call points only) through L1–L5 (life protection) and P1–P2 (property protection). The right category depends on your building, its use and who occupies it — our guide to fire alarm categories explains how the choice is made, and our BS 5839 compliance guide covers the standard in depth.
Maintenance is a legal duty, not an optional extra
BS 5839-1 expects fire alarm servicing by a competent person at least every six months, plus weekly user testing — and your logbook is the first thing a fire officer asks for. The same applies to emergency lighting (BS 5266) and extinguishers (BS 5306). A system that was compliant on installation day and never serviced since is a finding waiting to be written up.
What enforcement actually looks like
Fire and rescue authorities audit premises and respond to complaints and incidents. The tools escalate: an informal notice of deficiencies, a formal enforcement notice with deadlines, a prohibition notice that can close part or all of your building immediately, and prosecution. Fines are unlimited, and responsible persons have gone to prison after serious failings. The post-Grenfell era has made enforcement steadily more assertive — and the regulatory direction since (the Fire Safety Act 2021, the 2022 Regulations, the 2026 changes we cover separately) is toward more documentation and more accountability, not less.
A practical compliance checklist
- A written, current fire risk assessment by a competent assessor
- A fire alarm system matched to the assessment's category, with certification
- Six-monthly servicing and weekly tests, all logged
- Clear escape routes, working emergency lighting, correct signage
- Staff trained, drills carried out and recorded
- A diarised review date — and a trigger to reassess after any change of layout or use
If you cannot tick every line, you are carrying risk you do not need to carry. We design, install and maintain fire alarm systems to BS 5839, provide the certification and documentation your insurer and fire officer expect, and will tell you honestly if your current system is already adequate.