Employers are required to:

• Carry out a fire risk assessment of the workplace, taking into account all employees and all those who may be affected by a fire in the workplace.
  
• Identify the significant findings of the assessment and the details of anyone who might be especially at risk in case of fire. If you employ more than five people then these must be recorded.
  
• Provide and maintain such fire precautions as are necessary to safeguard those who use your workplace
  
• Inform, instruct and train your employees about the fire precautions in your workplace

Legislation also requires that:

• You nominate people to undertake any special roles identified in your emergency plan
  
• You must consult your employees (or their elected representatives) about the nomination of people to carry out particular roles in connection with fire safety, and about proposals for improving fire precautions
  
• You must inform other employers of any significant risk in your workplace which may affect the safety of their employees or others in the same premises, and co
• operate with them on measures to reduce or control those risks
  
• If you are not an employer, but have any control of premises that which contain more than one workplace, then you also have responsibility to ensure compliance with the Fire Regulations in those parts of the building over which you have control
  
• You must establish a suitable means of contacting the emergency services and ensure that they can be called easily
  
• Your employees are required to co-operate with you to make sure your workplace is safe from fire and its effects, and not to do anything which will place themselves or others at risk.

One-day training course

Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service's Industrial and Commercial Training Unit offers a one-day training course, Managing Fire Safety, that covers fire prevention and takes you through the fire risk assessment process, giving you the confidence to carry out your own fire risk assessments.