THE LAW

The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 seeks to ensure the safety of people in premises in the event of a fire.

The provisions of the act are very simple – the ‘duty holder’ is responsible for ensuring that the fire safety measures in their building are functional and meet the standards set out by the regulations.

The ‘duty holder’ may be an employer, but could also be a building owner or ‘any person that has control to any extent over a relevant building’. To that extent, this definition could include employees with specific duties or external agents such as facilities managers.

The Act seeks to ensure safety in the event of a fire by setting out fire safety responsibilities, which can be summarised as follows:

• Conducting a fire safety risk assessment of the premises & implementing any resulting recommendations
• To plan, organise, monitor, control and review fire safety measures and to record the arrangements in writing
• To provide appropriate means of fighting fire
• To provide adequate means of escape and to hold drills
• To maintain facilities and equipment in good repair
• To provide employees with relevant information and training
• Maintaining records

Failure to carry out these duties is an offence and, in cases where people may be put at risk of death or serious injury, penalties can include fines of up to £20,000 and/or up to 2 years imprisonment.

THE REALITY

Given that this Act, and the regulations it pertains to, have been in force for 15 years – and that the HSE and local authorities are both empowered to enforce them – the reality of fire safety in our built environment in Scotland is alarmingly inadequate.

Being fire door specialists, our analysis focuses on fire resistant doors and, in relation to the 7 points above, our experience is that the obligations defined in items 1, 2, 5 & 7 are rarely fulfilled.

Item 1 – many of the premises we visit do conduct fire risk assessments regularly, but the recommendations are not always implemented and, moreover, many fire risk assessments are very generic and superficial and do not examine in detail the individual elements of fire safety equipment, such as fire-resistant doors. The standards and regulations for each fire safety system or component are complex, be it a sprinkler or alarm system, fire stopping around service penetrations or, indeed, fire resistant doors. Schemes such as the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) utilise checklists for inspecting fire doors that have up to 90 items on them for each door, underlining the level of detail required to undertake a meaningful inspection.

Item 2 & 7 – our experience is that this is sporadic at best. Indeed, in the last 2 years we have only come across 1 premises where the duty holder had maintained a comprehensive fire safety manual with all the relevant documents and records of activity. Only 1.

Item 5 – fire resistant doors are not simply ‘a door’ – they are complex life safety systems comprised of numerous components that must all be compatible and functional. Each fire door must be able to hold back a fire for the same duration as the wall in which it is situated, usually 30 or 60 minutes, in order to maintain the compartmentation required to prevent the spread of fire. If they fail to do this then the entire fire safety strategy for the building will be compromised. That is why correct installation and regular inspection and maintenance are absolutely essential. The tolerances involved are absolutely minimal, for example the gaps between the door and its frame should be 3mm, with a tolerance of +/- only 1mm, and because they are often in constant use, many door components will deteriorate and move, resulting in reduced fire resistance.

Unfortunately, it is clear that these standards are simply not being maintained in the vast majority of instances, as the statistics below make clear.

Analysis of data held by the FDIS in 2019 revealed that, of 100,000 doors inspected in 2700 buildings, a huge 76% were condemned as being unfit for purpose. Further analysis identified the following –

• ALL of these doors had been poorly maintained
• 30% of them had been incorrectly installed
• 16% of them were not even fire-resistant doors!

This data is from a UK wide sample, but our own experience, gained entirely within Scotland, is actually even worse than these statistics.

 

POSSIBLE CAUSES

Based on our interactions with hundreds of relevant individuals and corporations we believe the following to be the most significant factors in the alarming level of neglect we have found:

• Lack of understanding of the exact role and function of a fire-resistant door
• Ignorance of the detailed standards and regulations involved
• A widely held misconception that a regular, generic fire risk assessment is all that is required to satisfy the law and fulfil obligations
• Reluctance to delve too deeply in order to avoid being faced with remedial costs

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

We feel the solutions to the alarming legacy of neglect of fire-resistant doors, which are absolutely critical to the safety of the millions of people that occupy or visit relevant buildings everyday in Scotland, lie primarily in education and enforcement.

Education – a government driven, national educational initiative aimed at every business in Scotland that clarifies legal obligations and explains the importance of fire-resistant doors would help address the lack of understanding and dispel misconceptions.

Enforcement – any educational initiative should be followed up with appropriate enforcement action. There is ample provision within the law to encourage, persuade or demand that remedial actions be taken where required, but the current state of affairs would suggest that these are not being used often enough.

New legislation – there are many examples of prescriptive legislation aimed at improving or enhancing our safety and that of others. MOT’s for our cars and for commercial vehicles are a perfect example. They MUST be conducted annually by properly qualified specialists who record their findings. If the required remedial actions are not completed then the vehicle doesn’t get a certificate.

In the same way, every fire-resistant door starts its life with a certificate of compliance. They are critical to our safety in the same way as the safety features on a lorry, so why shouldn’t we treat their upkeep the same way? In the same way that cars have service records, every fire-resistant door could have a lifetime service record that contains all relevant information and is kept in the fire safety manual for the building.

 

SUMMARY

Although our fire safety legislation has been in force for 15 years there is widespread non-compliance with the regulations and standards in relation to fire-resistant doors at least. The causes of this can be categorised as lack of understanding of the role and function of fire doors, ignorance of the standards and regulations, misconceptions surrounding legal obligations and financial reasons.

We believe the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 is adequate. However, like any legislation, it needs to be properly communicated and enforced in order to be effective. Our experience, reinforced by the available statistics, suggests that this has not happened. Perhaps the time has come for government to look at why our existing legislation is not understood or enforced?

We would willingly support any initiative or consultation process to improve the situation and know that many fire door specialists around the country, who have the same experiences as us, feel the same.