The introduction of the Fire Safety Order means that among other considerations, building occupiers now need to concern themselves with emergency lighting provisions. Barry Williams offers some guidance.
The very important changes made by the fire safety order means that issues such as emergency lighting, means of escape and fire detection equipment of a premises now lie with the ‘responsible person’. This has required a change in the attitude of employers: they can no longer rely on fire and rescue services to ensure compliance through fire certificates, which have now been withdrawn.
The new fire safety rules affect all non-domestic premises in England and Wales (there are broadly similar provisions in Scotland and Northern Ireland, though with some differences) and came into force on 1 October 2006. You are affected by the provisions of the Fire Safety Order if you are:
– responsible for business premises with five or more employees
– an employer or self-employed with business premises with five or more employees
– a charity or voluntary organisation with the same number of employees
– a contractor with a degree of control over any such premises
Those responsible should carry out regular testing and risk assessments of the building’s emergency evacuation systems, to ensure they are operating correctly and are still relevant and appropriate to the activities and the users of the building. Any changes to the physical layout of the premises, or the introduction of new or hazardous processes on the premises made since the last risk assessment, may result in modifications or additions being required to ensure the fire detection or emergency lighting systems continue to provide adequate cover. Confirmation should also be made during these risk assessments that the premises remain compliant with the ever-changing European standards and Directives, and UK codes of practice.
Failure to ensure the safety of occupants now leaves senior management open to prosecution under criminal law, and terms of imprisonment or substantial fines can result. Already some high profile cases have featured where fines of up to GB pound 500,000 have been imposed. In some instances, these have been accompanied by enforcement notices to ensure the premises remain closed, until fully compliant schemes with adequate evidence of systems testing are made available.
An area that is often under-rated is that of the emergency lighting system, which is required to operate automatically in the event of a partial or complete power failure in a commercial building, or in common access routes within multi-storey dwellings. The failure of an emergency lighting system to operate could have a potentially major impact on the safe evacuation of a building.
Guidance
The Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting (ICEL) currently has 31 registered members who, through various technical committees, have produced a number of specific guides covering all aspects of emergency lighting. Many of these have been adopted as the base documents for what are now formal British and European standards.
The ICEL1001 registration scheme was produced with the aim of ensuring a good standard of workmanship, suitability of materials and a good life expectancy for the internal components used in dedicated emergency luminaires in the elevated internal temperatures often found in this application. This was accompanied by a requirement for verified photometric performance to be made available. In most cases, the luminaires registered against ICEL 1001 have been tested independently by a third party test house that, through regularly auditing and re-testing products, monitors ongoing compliance with the scheme. In the UK, BSI normally undertakes this work and many compliant products also carry the Kite Mark as an added assurance of quality and performance.
ICEL also offers a range of verified and assessed training courses to help emergency lighting system designers, risk assessors and the maintainers of emergency lighting systems to achieve a recognised professional qualification in the subject. Further information on emergency lighting training is available from [email protected].
One such guide that would help the responsible person carrying out a risk assessment on a new or existing installation is the emergency lighting design guide: ICEL1006, which is downloadable from www.icel.co.uk. This introduces the various standards and European Directives that have an effect on the emergency lighting requirements in commercial premises in England and Wales – but in an easily readable and understandable format. It then progresses through the initial scheme and legislative requirements for commercial premises, and continues with the essential site layout and information on intended use that is required before an emergency lighting scheme can be correctly designed. To aid assessors of existing installations, the guide contains a section with a checklist which covers the main points for scheme compliance.
To illustrate the requirements of the European standards, ICEL1006 includes a pictorial design guide for installations, including the major points of emphasis and additional risks that need to be considered in a typical building. Examples showing how the correct positioning of emergency lighting and signage will provide maximum lighting efficiency and minimise the risk to occupants are included with specific guidance, to ensure compliance with the standards and directives.
At the same time as the introduction of the Regulatory Reform Order, Part 8 was added to the BS 5266 family of standards, and this was subsequently adopted in Europe and became the European Norm
EN 50172. This covers the testing and record keeping requirements for emergency lighting systems and its requirements are also covered in the guide. ICEL has also identified the need to develop a code of practice to enable emergency lighting system designers to compensate for the hazards identified by fire safety risk assessments.This will be achieved through a new Part 10 to BS 5266.
Many emergency lighting installations now employ automatic testing systems, some of which can also record the results of tests and any failures, so that accurate and concise records can be made available at any time. These systems must conform with the European standard EN 62034 and the main elements of this standard are again contained within ICEL1006.
Failure to comply with the new law may incur restrictions on use, a fine, or even imprisonment. We recommend that you take the time to read the documentation listed – it will help in both aiding compliance with the new law and make your premises safer from the threat of fire and/or power failure.
Barry Williams is a member of the ICEL technical committee and is technical director of Orbik Ltd. For a list of members and the products available from them visit www.icel.co.uk
