The Fire Safety law changed in October 2006. This will affect every accommodation provider in Britain. The biggest impact of this is for those not previously affected by the old legislation such as self catering properties and small guest houses or B&B operations. All accommodation businesses, whether they take one or one hundred guests will have to comply with the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005. In order to do this all businesses must carry out a fire risk assessment and VisitBritain suggest you record it all very carefully.  

To help you carry this out VisitBritain has commissioned a simple Fire Risk Assessment Template to help smaller businesses. You must read the information in the template carefully and ask yourself the questions it suggests in order to identify any risks. This will all help you form an action plan and when those actions have been dealt with record the date this was done. You will then need to keep a copy safe and regularly update it. Indeed it is always best to keep a copy off site too in case a fire does happen as you will need this to prove to your local fire brigade and insurance company that you did in fact, carry one out.

To assist you this template has been produced. It will help you follow the recognised steps in conducting a Fire Risk Assessment and showing compliance with the legislation. This is not the only way to show compliance with the 'Fire Safety Order', however, for most smaller properties it should be sufficient and will enable records of the 'significant findings' to be made.

Further information can be obtained from the Government Department responsible for fire safety at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/aboutguides/ and you can download a booklet called 'Fire Safety - Risk Assessment - Sleeping Accommodation' from this website or purchase a hard copy of the book: ISBN: 978 1 85112 817 4 from Department of Communities and Local Government Publications.

Of course, the 'sleeping accommodation' document was written with all buildings in mind (the larger risks understandably featuring more than small ones) and therefore this guidance might not always seem appropriate for individual properties in every case - especially those that hitherto did not have to comply with any fire protection legislation. In such circumstances you may feel the need to consult fire safety professionals and, details of such a company can be found at www.visitbritain.com/quality.

Every property is different in terms of build, layout, interior décor and number and location of guests - so there is no magic formula, but this simple and easy to follow template will provide you with a starting point and give prompts of aspects for you to consider.

This Fire Risk Assessment template is for guidance only. VisitBritain does not warrant that its completion will fulfill all your statutory obligations and shall not be liable for any costs, claims, loss, injury, damages, or proceedings howsoever arising from its use.