Theatres, cinemas and similar places
If you own, run or manage a theatre, cinema or similar premises you must carry out a fire risk assessment. This is the law.
It applies to premises where '... the main use of the building or part of the building is a theatre, cinema, concert hall or combination of these', and to purpose-built premises and converted premises. If your premises are temporary such as in a marquee or tent, please see 'Small and medium', or 'Large places of assembly'.
Your Fire Risk Assessment must be carried out by your Responsible Person - this is the person who has control of the premises. Examples may include a manager, occupier, owner or employer. You can also 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 premises and what can be done to remove or reduce them. You must record the required information and keep it up to date.
Every theatre, cinema or similar premises has a legal responsibility to do and maintain a fire risk assessment. It is there to help keep you, your visitors, customers, staff and building safe from fire.
The Government produces a guide which tells you how to carry out a fire risk assessment. While it is possible to do the fire risk assessment yourself, particularly if your premises are small or low risk, many theatre, cinema and similar 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 theatres, cinemas and similar premises and make sure that you have appropriate fire safety in place. This is to help protect you, your building and your customers, staff, 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 theatres, cinemas and similar premises' 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