Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Figure 1.8
Guidance 
notes
Figure 1.9
Acts, Regulations, Orders, ACoPs and guid-
ance notes
Act
Regulations
ACoPs
Guidance Notes
EU/BS Standards
Industry Guidance
Statute law –
failure to comply
is an offence
Can be used as
evidence of
minimum legal
standard
HSE opinion on
good practice
No legal status
Trade advice
and best practice
only

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Introduction to Fire Safety Management
8
Absolute duties
These are requirements laid down in law which usu-
ally state that something ‘shall’ or ‘shall not’ or ‘must’ or 
‘must not’ be done. There is no effective legal defence 
against a breach of an absolute standard, including igno-
rance. An example of an absolute standard would be the 
requirement laid down in Article 9(1) of the Regulatory 
Reform (Fire Safety) Order that a responsible person must 
make a suitable and suffi cient assessment of the risks to 
which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of 
identifying the general fi re precautions he needs to take.
Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and 
Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer 
to carry out suitable and suffi cient assessments of risk. 
Article 23(1) of the RRFSO or section 7 of HSWA states 
that employees must take care of themselves or others 
(relevant persons) who may be affected by their acts or 
omissions.
Practicable duties
These require steps to be taken in light of what is actu-
ally possible using current knowledge and technology, 
e.g. it is technically possible. A good example would be 
the requirement under regulation 11 of the Provision and 
Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 for all dan-
gerous parts of machines to be guarded so far as it is 
practicable to do so. Obviously it would be impossible 
to guard every part of a grinding wheel, for example, so 
only those parts which it is 
practicable
(technically pos-
sible) to guard need to be covered.
However, unlike reasonably practicable below there 
is no quantum relating to the cost of provision.