Fire safety for small businesses operating from commercial premises
Complying with fire safety legislation if you are a small business operating from a non-domestic premises. These documents explain your legal responsibilities.
You could be fined or go to prison if you do not follow fire safety regulations.
Minor penalties can be up to £5,000. Major penalties can have unlimited fines and up to 2 years in prison.
If you operate a business from a commercial, or non-domestic, premises, fire safety legislation requires you to ensure the safety of:
- employees
- other people visiting your premises, for example members of the public or contractors
You must:
- do a fire risk assessment to identify the risk of fire to people in your premises
- take measures to protect people on premises from fire
- take steps to reduce the chance of a fire starting
- provide appropriate fire alarm systems
- make sure that people can evacuate safely if a fire happens
- co-operate and co-ordinate with other occupiers, managing agents and landlords
Your local fire and rescue service normally enforces fire safety legislation but they cannot do a fire risk assessment for you. Many services provide advice and support for small businesses. Additional information can be found on your local fire and rescue service website.
This guidance applies only to England. Separate guidance applies in Wales.
The guidance is not intended for use in Scotland or Northern Ireland, where different fire safety legislation applies:
Your responsibilities under fire safety legislation
This guide will:
- help you know whether you or your organisation have a legal responsibility for certain duties that are part of English and Welsh fire legislation
- explain the relevant duties
- help you identify who should be the ‘responsible person’ at any premises
Making your premises safe from fire
The guide to making your small, non-domestic premises safe from fire provides:
- good practice
- practical examples of potential precautions that may be appropriate for your property
A suitable and sufficient risk assessment will inform the exact, individual and case-specific precautions that need to be taken in each premises.
Some premises have features that mean they require precautions which are not covered by this guide. It is your responsibility to make sure that you are compliant with the requirements set out in the legislation and to seek independent professional advice if necessary.
‘Fire safety in the workplace’ is a useful summary of the steps you must take as an employer.
Fire risk assessments
You must carry out a fire risk assessment.
This will help you make sure that the following are in place and working properly:
- your fire safety procedures
- fire prevention measures
- fire precautions (plans, systems and equipment)
The fire risk assessment should identify any issues that need attention.
A fire risk assessment is an organised and methodical look at your premises and the activities carried on there, considering that a fire could start and cause harm to those in and around the premises. You can hire a ‘competent’ fire risk assessor to do this for you.
The aims of a fire risk assessment are to:
- identify the fire hazards
- reduce the risk of hazards causing harm to as low as possible
- decide what physical fire precautions and management arrangements will make sure people in your premises are kept safe if a fire does start
Good management of fire safety is essential to make sure that:
- fires are less likely to happen
- if a fire happens it can be controlled or contained quickly, effectively and safely
- everyone in your premises can escape to a place of safety easily and quickly if a fire grows
Further guidance
The documents linked to on this page are part of a larger collection of fire safety guidance and documentation. Guidance for other fire safety scenarios is also available.