The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — the FSO — is the principal piece of fire safety legislation governing non-domestic premises and the communal areas of residential buildings in England and Wales. It does not assign responsibility to the fire service, the local authority, or anyone else. It assigns it to you: the person with control of the premises.

That duty is active and continuous. It does not arise only when something goes wrong. It applies every day the building is occupied, and the fire service can audit your compliance at any time. Understanding what is required — and being able to demonstrate it — is the foundation of everything else.

Who Is the Responsible Person?

Article 3 of the FSO defines the responsible person as the employer, where the premises is a workplace, or otherwise the person who has control of the premises in connection with carrying on a trade, business or other undertaking. In practice, this means:

Business owners & employers

Responsible for their own premises If you own or operate a business from a premises — an office, shop, warehouse, care home, hotel or any other commercial setting — you are the responsible person for that premises. This applies whether you own the freehold, lease the space, or occupy it under licence.

Landlords & freeholders

Responsible for common areas and the structure In a residential block or mixed-use building, the freeholder or landlord is responsible for the common parts — lobbies, corridors, stairwells, plant rooms — and for the building's structure. This includes the fire risk assessment for those areas, the communal fire alarm system, emergency lighting, and fire doors in shared spaces.

Managing agents

Often a responsible person in their own right Where a managing agent exercises day-to-day control over a building's common parts — commissioning maintenance, managing fire safety systems, communicating with tenants — they typically share the responsible person status with the freeholder. A management contract does not remove this; the FSO attaches to control, not to contractual arrangements.

Directors & senior managers

Personal liability alongside the organisation The FSO allows prosecution of individuals as well as organisations. Where a director or senior manager consented to, connived in, or was negligent about a breach, they can be prosecuted personally — even if the company is also prosecuted. A fine against the company does not protect the individual.

Your Core Legal Duties

The FSO sets out a series of specific duties. The following are the most significant for most responsible persons.

Duty 1: Fire risk assessment

Article 9 — the foundation of everything else You must ensure a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment is in place, covering all relevant risks in the building. It must be kept up to date — reviewed whenever there is a significant change to the building, its occupancy or its use, and at least annually for higher-risk premises. The assessment must be acted upon: identifying risks without addressing them offers no legal protection. In buildings with five or more employees, the significant findings must be recorded in writing.

Duty 2: Fire safety measures

Article 13 — detection, alarm and firefighting You must ensure appropriate fire detection and alarm systems are in place, maintained in efficient working order, and tested regularly. Where fire extinguishers or other firefighting equipment is provided, it must be of the correct type, correctly positioned and within its service date. This duty extends to the physical condition of the building — compartmentation, fire doors, and the integrity of fire-resisting construction.

Duty 3: Escape routes

Article 14 — the most commonly breached provision Escape routes must be kept clear, unobstructed and usable at all times. Final exit doors must be operational and openable without a key during occupancy. Emergency lighting must be provided where necessary and kept in working order. In 2024–25, Article 14 was the single most cited breach in fire safety audits across England — 10,323 recorded breaches. It is also among the simplest to prevent.

Duty 4: Emergency procedures

Article 15 — planning for the worst You must establish and maintain suitable procedures for serious and imminent danger — in practice, a documented evacuation plan that reflects the building's design, occupancy and risk profile. This includes identifying persons who may need assistance to evacuate, putting Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans in place where required, and ensuring that assembly points are clearly designated. Procedures must be communicated to all relevant persons.

Duty 5: Information & training

Articles 19–21 — people, not just systems Employees must be given comprehensible and relevant information about fire risks, emergency procedures and the identity of fire marshals. Fire safety training must be provided at induction and repeated periodically — at least annually for most premises. In residential buildings, residents must be given relevant fire safety information about the building, its fire strategy, and what to do in the event of fire.

Duty 6: Maintenance

Article 17 — keeping systems working All fire safety equipment and systems must be maintained in efficient working order and good repair. This covers fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, fire doors, extinguishers and any other measure identified in the fire risk assessment. Maintenance records must be kept and be available for inspection. A system that has not been serviced — or one whose service records cannot be produced — is, in the eyes of an auditor, a system that may not be working.

Duty 7: Competent persons

Article 18 — using qualified professionals Fire safety work must be carried out by competent persons. This means using qualified fire risk assessors, accredited alarm engineers and experienced fire door inspectors — not general maintenance staff. Using unqualified contractors to carry out fire safety work increases risk, can invalidate insurance, and will not satisfy an auditor.

The Consequences of Getting It Wrong

Fire and rescue services across England carried out 51,020 audits in the year to March 2025. Of those, 42% returned an unsatisfactory result. More than 1,700 enforcement notices were issued, requiring mandatory remedial action. Nearly 1,000 prohibition notices were served — buildings restricted or closed, often with immediate effect.

Beyond enforcement, the personal consequences for responsible persons can be severe. Prosecution under the FSO carries unlimited fines and up to two years' imprisonment. Where a death occurs, corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter are both available routes — the latter carrying substantial custodial sentences for individuals.

Prior correspondence from the fire service — an informal letter, an audit finding, an enforcement notice — becomes evidence in any subsequent prosecution. Being told a building has a problem, and doing nothing about it, is significantly worse than not having been told at all.

For a detailed account of how prosecutions unfold and what the courts have done in recent cases, see our article on what happens if someone dies in a fire at your premises.

What Good Compliance Looks Like in Practice

The responsible person duty is not about achieving perfection. It is about demonstrating that fire risk has been taken seriously, assessed properly, acted upon, and maintained. The evidence that demonstrates this is largely documentary — and it needs to be current, organised and immediately accessible.

The documents you should be able to produce on request

A current fire risk assessment reflecting the building as it is today. Written fire safety arrangements. An evacuation plan and fire drill records. Staff fire safety training records showing who was trained, when, and by whom. Fire alarm test logs — weekly tests by management and periodic service records. Emergency lighting test records. Fire extinguisher service records. Fire door inspection records. An electrical installation condition report. And, for residential buildings, evidence that residents have been provided with relevant fire safety information.

If any of these are missing, out of date, or cannot be located quickly, that is the place to start. A fire service auditor arriving unannounced will ask for them within minutes of entering the building.

How We Can Help

Fletcher Risk Management works with landlords, managing agents, business owners and property investors across Chester, Cheshire, Merseyside, the Wirral and North Wales. We carry out fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training — and we provide independent advice on what your building actually needs, without any interest in selling you systems or equipment.

If you are not confident that your current fire risk assessment is suitable, sufficient and up to date — or if you have received a letter or visit from the fire service and want to understand what it means — please get in touch.

We carry out fire risk assessments for premises of all types across Chester, the North West and North Wales — including residential blocks, commercial premises, hotels, HMOs and industrial sites. If you need a clear picture of your compliance position, please get in touch.

Are you clear on your responsibilities as a responsible person?

We provide thorough, professionally qualified fire risk assessments and independent fire safety advice for responsible persons across Chester, the North West and North Wales.

Disclaimer: This article is intended as general guidance only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. The duties described reflect the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 as it applies in England and Wales. Requirements may vary depending on building type, occupancy and applicable legislation. Responsible persons should seek professional fire safety advice tailored to their specific premises. Fletcher Risk Management accepts no liability for actions taken or not taken on the basis of this article. Fletcher Risk Management is based in Chester and provides fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training across the North West and North Wales. © Fletcher Risk Management Ltd, April 2026.