Introduction to Fire Safety Management

15.27.3 The responsible person
As the responsible person you must ensure the safety 
from fi re of your employees and any person who may 
legally come onto your premises, or any person not on 
the premises who may be affected (relevant persons) 
[8(a) and (b)]. Where you share responsibility with other 
responsible persons (e.g. adjacent premises, employers, 
tenant/landlord or multiple tenancy building) you must 
cooperate by sharing information and collaborating in 
providing measures. This also extends to premises in 
which an explosive atmosphere could occur [22].

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Introduction to Fire Safety Management
390
The RRFSO places a duty on the responsible person 
(RP) and outlines all the measures that must be taken 
to ensure the safety of all the RP is directly or indirectly 
responsible for. At the same time it allows the enfor cing 
authority to make sure that it is enacted and sets 
penalties if it is not.
It requires the RP to:
➤
Carry out a fi re risk assessment
➤
Develop and produce a policy
➤
Develop procedures (particularly with regard to 
evacuation)
➤
Provide staff with information and training and carry 
out fi re drills.
The responsible person must also provide and maintain:
➤
Clear means of escape
➤
Signs
➤
Notices
➤
Emergency 
lighting
➤
Fire detection and alarm and
➤
Fire 
fi ghting equipment.
The RRFSO contains the phrase ‘…The responsible per-
son must…appoint one or more Competent Persons to 
assist him…’. In addition, the competent person must 
have ‘…suffi cient training, experience and knowledge…’. 
Where the competent person is directly employed the 
responsible person must ensure that he or she is properly 
trained.
When there is no competent person within the 
responsible person’s employment to assist in the 
preparation of a fi re risk assessment an external consult-
ant can be engaged, they must be provided with informa-
tion to ensure that they can undertake their tasks.