Health & safety bulletin
Customer Bulletin - Fire Safety
22nd July 2010
It is not often that we issue bulletins specifically for the attention of our customers, so we thought we'd make an exception for our 200th one. Generally these are aimed at our employees and approved subcontractors and made available for customers' reference and awareness.
We are all able to improve our workplace safety and that includes our customers, who have a duty under section 7 of the Management of Health & Safety at work Regulations 1999 to discuss and agree our safe system of work before we commence work on their site. However, the safety of those on-site doesn't end with our men on the forecourt once risk assessments have been carried out, it also extends to simple things like good housekeeping and clear access to emergency exits etc.
Our site teams have identified a worrying number of fire exits on sites that are blocked by retail stock or rubbish which not only breaches the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, but also the Health & Safety at Work Act etc 1974 and the Management of Health & safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Fire exits are a critical escape path in the event of a fire and are designed to save lives, yet we regularly accept people being put at risk because of situations such as those pictured above.
Fire risk assessments are mandatory on all sites and retail outlets, and fines have consistently increased since the latest legislation was introduced five years ago. With this, media interest has also intensified.
Breaches not only result in ever increasing fines, but also a lot of bad publicity including, in some cases, prime time news coverage on national TV.
There are many publicly available records detailing breaches of legislation but I have included a few links to web articles that all relate to court fines and costs in excess of £100,000 imposed for direct breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The real costs relating to defence costs, legal bills, management time, investigations, down-time and reputational loss are, of course, much higher:-
High street retailer fined £400,000 and ordered to pay £136,052 in costs:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8379503.stm
Supermarket ordered to pay £118,000 for breaching fire regulations:
Retailer forced to pay £238,000 for fire safety failings:
http://www.w-fp.co.uk/blog/the-co-op-receives-near-record-fine-for-fire-safety-failings/
Businessman pays out £130,300 for fire safety breaches:
Where our teams identify safety breaches, we endeavor to make the site staff aware, mitigate the risk at source and then advise our customer. However, if our customers could reinforce this message to their site operators and encourage their area managers to raise awareness, it may very well save a life, or a potentially a very large fine.
Click here to download the bulletin (288Kb PDF file)