Feature Fire Safety Matters Live 2021 FIA Guide to the UK Fire Safety Industry
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outlined Baker, who continued:
“Assessments will be delivered across a
rolling period of five years.”
At the building and local levels,
decisions on the Gateways and safety
certificates will be led by a lead
inspector, in many instances someone
from the regulator. A multi-disciplinary
team will also be involved comprising
building control and representatives
from the local Fire and Rescue Service
and the local authority, etc.
A broad function of the Building
Safety Regulator focuses on competence
and its promotion across the
construction sector with the aim of
raising standards around building
design, construction and management.
“Competence includes the competence
of regulators such as the building
control bodies,” opined Baker, who’s
currently working alongside the British
Standards Institution to design the
competence framework.
Baker concluded his excellent
presentation by stating: “Change for the
better is going to require a collaborative
effort.” How very true.
Building a Safer Future
1.30 pm saw Ian Moore focus his
attentions on ‘Raising the Bar –
Competence for Building a Safer Future’,
with the FIA CEO’s opening words
stressing the fact that ‘competence’ –
and, in parallel, the apparent lack of it –
is mentioned no fewer than 152 times in
Dame Judith Hackitt’s report. “There
will need to be cultural change,”
observed Moore. “People must be
responsible and accountable for what
they do. Public confidence is very
important here. We simply have to be
better at instilling a higher degree of
confidence in members of the public
around, for example, fire drills and
evacuation procedures. We need to
lessen the number of false fire alarms.”
Moore focused on the definition of
competence. “It has to be proven and
relevant,” he urged. “To date, there are
still no requirements for
competency in many areas of fire
safety. It’s an appalling situation.
Going forward, fines for proven
breaches of the Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
will most certainly increase.
Naivety is not an excuse.”
There are, of course, lists and
registers of competent companies and
individuals. “What we need to do,”
continued Moore, “is look at people’s
personal qualifications and company
certifications as well as seek to
determine product compliance.”
Importantly, the Home Office
endorses third party certification
schemes. Indeed, there’s now an
extremely strong belief that this is the
way forward. The Home Office has
noted: “Third party certification
schemes for fire protection products and
related services are an effective means of
providing the fullest possible assurances,
offering a level of quality, reliability and
safety that non-certificated products
may lack. This does not mean goods and
services that are not third party
approved are somehow less reliable, but
there is no obvious way in which this
can be demonstrated.”
At this juncture, Moore asserted: “Fire
and Rescue Services also endorse third
party certification, but it’s a great shame
that this isn’t mandated for life safety
systems.” Moore is absolutely right on
this point. Human nature being what
it is means that many will always
opt for the path of least
resistance unless forced – by
law – to do otherwise.
Certification schemes
In terms of what ‘good’ looks
like just now, there are third
party certification schemes for
several areas including fire risk
assessment, fire detection and alarm
systems, fixed gaseous extinguishing
systems, portable fire extinguishers,
emergency lighting systems, sprinkler
systems and fire doors.
“We cannot emphasise enough how
important it is for the fire industry as a
whole to be behind all of this,”
concluded Moore. “The FIA will
continue to promote the third party
certification of companies and personal
qualifications as the best means of
demonstrating competency.” •
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