Sleeping accommodation
If you are an employer, manager or owner of premises providing sleeping accommodation, you must carry out a fire risk assessment. This is the law.
It applies to premises where the main use is for sleeping accommodation. Common examples include bed and breakfast and guest houses, inns, holiday accommodation, hotels, student halls of residence, refuges, residential training centres, the common areas of houses in multiple occupation, and more. You can find a full list of premises in the Guidance referred to below. (Note: if your premises are small and simple, they may be classed as 'Small paying guest accommodation')
Your Fire Risk Assessment must be carried out by your Responsible Person - this is the person who has control of the premises. Alternatively, you can employ a professional Fire Risk Assessor to do the assessment for you.
What is a fire risk assessment
A fire risk assessment is an assessment of the possible fire risks in your sleeping accommodation and what can be done to remove or reduce them. You must record the required information and keep it up to date.
Every sleeping accommodation premises has a legal responsibility to do and maintain a fire risk assessment. It is there to help keep you, your guests, residents, staff, visitors, and building safe from fire.
The Government produces a guide which tells you how to carry out a fire risk assessment. The guidance is for 'employers, managers, and owners' of premises that provide sleeping accommodation. While it is possible to do the fire risk assessment yourself, particularly if your premises are small or low risk, many healthcare premises may prefer to employ a fire risk assessor to undertake the assessment for them..
If you want to employ a fire risk assessor to do your Fire Risk Assessment...
If you cannot carry out the Fire Risk Assessment yourself, you can employ someone to do it for you.
You will still be legally responsible for your Fire Risk Assessment and so it is important that you use or employ a person who can do the job correctly. Take a look at the things you should check before employing someone to do your Fire Risk Assessment
When we inspect your premises
Kent Fire and Rescue Service are legally required to inspect sleeping accommodation premises and make sure that you have appropriate fire safety in place. This is to help protect you, your building, your residents, guests, visitors and anyone who uses the building from the risk of fire.
Our Inspector will make sure that your premises comply with the government guidance found in 'Fire Risk Assessment for Sleeping accommodation' referred to above.This means the things you need to do to make sure that:
- if there is a fire, the building will hold back fire and smoke to allow enough time for people to escape
- the building has the appropriate fire alarm(s) and warnings, signage, lighting and other requirements referred to in the government guidance to assist people to evacuate if there is a fire
- that you know what to do if there is a fire, and that this information has been passed onto your staff and other relevant people
- you are doing everything to stop fire in the first place by identifying fire hazards and risks, and by removing or reducing those hazards and risks
- that you keep records of what you do and keep your Fire Risk Assessment updated