Fire Risk Assessments - Hotels/Boarding Houses

Fire Certificates for Hotels and Boarding Houses were formerly issued by the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. Now, however, legislatory changes require Fire Risk Assessments to be carried out for these premises.

Previously, Herts Fire and Rescue Service. would inspect hotels and boarding houses, and if satisfied with the fire precautions and procedures, would issue a Fire Certificate. However, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which came into force in 2006, removed the legal status of Fire Certificates. These were replaced by the requirement for Fire Risk Assessments to be carried out for premises, which are required to be a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed. This is  for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions which are needed in order to comply with the requirements imposed by the 2005 legislation. There is also the introduction of the Responsible Person, who in relation to a workplace will normally be the employer if the premises are under that person's control, or could be the owner of the building, or there could be a joint responsibility, depending on who has control of the premises. Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service will, if required, be able to give guidance on this so please contact them if you require further advice.

Also, the 2005 legislation introduced Competent Person(s), who the Responsible Person is required to nominate in order to implement measures for fire fighting on the premises amongst other things. What this means is that someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities in order to enable that person to implement the measures found to be required as the result of the findings of the Fire Risk Assessment. The Fire Risk Assessment could be carried out by the Responsible Person if they are capable of doing so within the description of competency above, or may be an external organisation who specialises in carrying out Fire Risk Assessment. There are a number of official guides where information is available about what is required within Fire Risk Assessments, both generally and for specific types of premises.  Please find more advice at the Communities and Local Government website.

It is likely that those in control of hotels and boarding houses could require that those who carry out Fire Risk Assessments for those premises (compared to 'simpler' premises) would have a higher level of training, experience and expertise - in short, competency - due to the added risks to those on the premises as those premises are, amongst other things, sleeping accommodation. Again, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service will give advice should it be required.