Website: As with other SGs our FRMSG page has now been updated and the general layout improved. Work is ongoing to provide more useful information and links to relevant "not for profit" fire related websites. http://www.iosh.co.uk/specialist/index.cfm?action=news&id=6

Fire Conference 2002: The feedback has been reviewed from our inaugural Fire Conference, which confirmed our own views that it had been well received. WE have already started to plan for next year, early June, somewhere off the M6 corridor, and would be around the theme of Emergency Planning/Disaster Management.

IOSH Conference and Exhibition 2002: Our SG has offered to fill two of the discussion sessions with papers on Fire Risk Assessments and Arson.

Business Fire Risk Assessment Website:BT RedCARE and the Fire Protection Association have jointly developed a web-based guide, which is primarily aimed at those who run small businesses. It provides basic advice about fire safety in small businesses, it describes the importance of fire risk assessment and it includes a table of simple questions about fire safety, which will form the basis of a fire risk assessment, which can be completed online.

http://www.fpa-fireriskassessment.com/

6.5 OFFSHORE � Tam Boyd. Nothing to report.

6.6 HEALTHCARE � Bill Scott-Smith. Nothing to report.

7.0 MEMBERS ITEMS

7.1 Past President. I Waldran. The Chair acknowledged the Past President and welcomed him to the meeting with the invitation to address the members. There are three new documents available to the members with the first being the HSC Strategic Plan which outlined major hazards requiring effort if the Revitalising Health and Safety targets are to be met. The HSE will be prioritizing eight items: Construction, Agriculture & Fisheries and the Health Services with special attention to Falls from Height, Transport, Stress, Musculoskeletal disorders and trips and falls within Local Authorities. It was also mentioned that IOSH have released two new publications offering advice and guidance to the members. Occupational Health for Safety Advisers � Professionals in Partnership. Global Best Practice when using Contractors. The titles and availability are available from HQ and posted on the HQ website.

7.2 Sederunt. The importance of signing the Sederunt was mentioned both as a CPD record and also the Fire Check.

7.3 Branch Officials Meeting. A short report was given by M Bancroft of the visit by the Secretary ad himself to the two-day meeting at Leicester. Copy of the programme was tabled and the items mentioned included: Good networking opportunity; Aberdeen Branch back up and running with a new Executive Committee; Edinburgh Branch website and presentation of facility to meeting; Up-date on the application for Royal Charter; Generally a beneficial visit and enforced the knowledge that HQ wishes to provide good support to the Branch Structure.

7.4 Proposed District. The Chairman reported on his intended meeting with the Chair of the working party. A good event did take place although the working party Chairman sent his apologies and did not attend. The way has been cleared for better communication between both groups as the Branch Chairman agreed to act as the working party spokesman. Finances have been agreed until the end of the financial year.

7.5 Manual Handling Regulations. Findings from the workshop within the Branch earlier in the year are available from the IOM and they offered to have a second workshop to explain their conclusions. The members supported the Executive�s decision to arrange this event if possible.

7.6 IOSH Passport Scheme. One member is looking for suitable training for surveyors having duties on construction sites and contact for information on the Passport Scheme.

8.0 GUEST SPEAKER

Liz Young, THE branch Education Development Adviser, introduced the speaker to the group as Derek Simpson - Head of Fire Safety. He then thanked the group for the opportunity to return and present the up-to-date requirements of Risk Assessment as covered by the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations as it had been about 3 or 4 years since he last had the opportunity to address the group.

Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 � as amended in 1999

The Fire Brigade�s first contact with Risk Assessment as a system came about because of thee regulations. Prior to this they had been more used to a prescriptive form of enforcement contained in the Fire Precautions Act. It is probably fair comment to state that there were a number of the old school who have had more than a little difficulty coming to terms with the new approach as it required a "mind-set change" to leave the prescriptive format and follow the self-regulations format.

The initial question which came about with the introduction of these regulations which was one of "Who should enforce the regulations?", was really because of the original prescriptive operation conditions which the Local Fire Brigades were noted for. There was concern that the mind-set change was not a likely condition to be met. But eventually the Home Office & the DTI agreed to let it remain with the Local Fire Brigade and it is fair comment to say that in the main they have grasped the nettle and run very well with it.

The biggest change was still the effect of moving to a position of self-regulations by self-compliance gained through risk assessment. One of the problem areas being could they actually perform while following two sets of regulations adopting opposing views = Outdated prescriptive conditions versus the modern risk assessment based self-compliance format.

Brief Review of the Regulations. (As they affected local Fire Services)

Prior to the regulations in 1997, the local Fire Service had little or no input on protection of property as their main concern for the issue of Fire Certificates was related to safe egress in the case of an emergency. In fact the original certificates were known as "Mean of Escape" certificates. The certificates were also only enforceable in a small range of properties � i.e. Factories, Offices, Shops & Railway Premises. The original coverage being limited to the Factories Act and the Offices, Shops and Railway premises Acts missed out such locations as Schools, Hospitals, Historic Buildings etc.

All this changed with the introduction of the Workplace regulations. This gave the "IN" to all areas where persons worked

A substantial amount of training was necessary to move the local Fire Service staff away from the prescriptive format of fire advice into the concept of Risk Assessment and hence more into a general advice mode. There does however still remain the power invested in the Fire Service under Section 10 of the Fire Precautions Act, where the building is considered so dangerous to restrict access or even close it down. Currently in the Lothian & Border district there are some 14 Improvement Notices in position, mainly restricting access within residential properties.

Amended Regulations

The original Workplace regulations has a substantial list of exemptions, including the position where if a Fire Certificate had previously been issued there was no need for a Fire Risk Assessment to be produced or the need to comply with the Workplace Regulations in full.

The EU ruling however stated that the original UK Regulations did not implement the "spirit and intention" of the commission and the amendment regulations were necessary. These reduced the level of exemptions � including the one relating to previously issued Fire Certificates.

The local Fire Services however are still they believe applying a common sense approach to the issue. � If you have a Fire Certificate in place, they will take this as the basis of a Risk Assessment and if you add to it a few items such as Ignitions sources and Disabled access arrangements you will then meet the requirements of the Workplace regulations.

One of the major issues for the 1997 regulations was the lack of publicity undertaken to make person aware. There was nothing in the papers, nothing on the TV etc and in fact they then stated it was left to the local fire services to put the message across.

When the 1999 amendment was issued, the HSE issued "Fire Safety" which at least gave some publicity to the need for Risk Assessments to be completed at the same time as providing some guidance in how to do it. It is not "Rocket Science" � it is the application of common sense, however the major issue is still one of putting the detail down on paper.

The Fire Authority does not do Risk Assessment � this is the responsibility of the employers to complete them and there was concern that they were not being done. So a survey was commissioned in June 2000 to prove what was suspected by a number of persons within the fire service.

• 5 UK Fire Brigades were commissioned to undertake a select survey
• They surveyed more than 2,000 employers

• The results were to be categorize by the Home Office categories of A, B, C, or D = Those with Fire Certificates, Those with fewer than the necessary number of employees to justify a Fire Certificate, Residential properties such as nursing homes etc, Non-residential properties.

The results showed �

• Awareness of the regulations in certificated premises = 71.5%
• Awareness in non-certificated premises = 47.1 %
• Overall awareness = 58.8%
• 79.2% claimed to have suitable Risk Assessments completed, however less than 1/3^rd had sort any advice from the Fire Service
• 25.7% stated they were aware of guidance being available
• 25% stated they were aware of the enforcing authority

The recommendations following the survey were for

• A more comprehensive survey to be commissioned
• Resources to be made available for a campaign to raise awareness
• The Fire Service to be given flexibility to assist employers to apply the regulations � (This included the consideration of undertaking Risk Assessments to generate income)
• Legislation Advisers to consider better methods of communicating to the user

The Fire Authorities reorganized about 2 year ago in preparation for the new regulations to enable the newly covered areas such as Schools, Hospitals, Historic Buildings to be covered adequately as they are seen as having very different and special needs. The bilk of the properties now included in these areas were built a long time prior to modern fire legislation and building control and will therefore have extreme difficulty in matching the modern requirements. Currently Schools and historical buildings are receiving more attention than hospitals as a number of hospital authorities already have fire awareness provided by in-house expertise.

An amount of money has already been "ring-fenced" for schools to provide training in Fire Risk Assessment and to undertake some of the Fire Safety Improvements, which will certainly be identified from them.

What level of training is necessary to undertake a Fire Risk assessment has been the constant question posed to the fire service of late and the general consensus is that either a one or two day course may be sufficient for normal operations within small to medium enterprises. A greater depth of knowledge and capability only being necessary when the more complex processes are involved in manufacturing industries for instance.

The Scottish Fire Service has been looking for a document, which could be issued as guidance in simple terms to small to medium sized businesses and were originally going to utilise a publication produced by the NW England Fire Brigades. But they came across a publication from the Fire Protection Association sponsored by BT headed "Business Fire Risk Assessment Guide". Which although it is an advertising brochure for the BT RedCARE fire alarm signaling system, does contain a lot of detail necessary to inform people of the Fire Precautions Risk Assessment system.

The brochure includes sections on �

• Fire Risk Assessment
• Common causes of Fire & how to guard against them
• Fire protection & Fire safety measures
• A simple form of fire risk assessment
• Recording the risk assessment
• Business continuity

Copies of the brochure were made available to members attending the meeting

The days of the prescriptiveness has gone � the fire service has had to move over to the carrot on a stick system � enticing the employer to do what is necessary. It should however be borne in mind that the stick is still there, but it is considered a very last resort.

Some of the problems however may be from large national companies where they believe the problems in Aberdeen are exactly the same as they are in London, which is not so. Currently there is 3 times greater chance of dying in a fire in a home in Scotland than there is in England.

Currently the Lothian & Borders Fire Service is considering taking a large Company to court � the detail being with the Procurator Fiscal. They firmly believe the fire doors are being locked during the hours of darkness whilst casual labour is used to fill the shelves. The reasons for the belief revolves around the fact that during a recent fire at night the fire extinguishers had to be used as battering rams to exit the burning building. Win or Loose � the Fire Service intend to use the opportunity to gain lots of publicity about the need to comply with the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations.

9.0 DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Christopher E White MBE, FIOSH, RSP Edinburgh Branch Secretary     Brian W Pill FIOSH, RSP Branch Chairman

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