Short answer
Is a written fire safety policy a legal requirement?
The Fire Safety Order requires the responsible person to make and give effect to appropriate fire-safety arrangements for planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review. Since 1 October 2023, those arrangements and the fire risk assessment must be recorded in full.
The legislation does not prescribe a separate document with the title “fire safety policy” for every premises. A policy is a practical way to organise the required arrangements, but its value depends on whether it reflects the real building, responsibilities and controls rather than repeating generic statements.
Core contents
What should a fire safety policy include?
Start with a concise statement of purpose and scope, then make the operational arrangements easy to find. Small straightforward premises may use a short document; a multi-site or multi-occupied organisation may need local appendices and supporting procedures.
Scope and objectives
Which premises, activities and people the policy covers, and the organisation’s fire-safety objectives.
Governance
The responsible person, senior ownership, competent assistance and named roles for routine tasks.
Prevention and protection
How ignition and fuel hazards, alarms, escape, doors, lighting, signs and firefighting equipment are controlled.
Emergency arrangements
Alarm response, evacuation strategy, assistance for people who may need it, assembly and calling the fire and rescue service.
Information and training
Induction, refresher information, drills, contractors, visitors and role-specific instruction.
Monitoring and improvement
Checks, maintenance, action tracking, incident learning, audit and review arrangements.
Accountability
Allocate roles without losing legal responsibility
The responsible person can appoint competent people and delegate tasks, but remains responsible for ensuring suitable arrangements exist and are implemented. A policy should distinguish legal accountability from the people completing inspections, arranging maintenance or acting as fire wardens.
In shared premises, the policy should identify other responsible persons and record how information, alarms, escape routes, impairments and emergency arrangements are coordinated.
- Name the organisation or person holding the responsible-person duty
- Identify a senior policy owner and competent advisers
- Assign routine checks, contractor control and action follow-up
- Define deputies and out-of-hours arrangements
- Record interfaces with landlords, tenants and managing agents
- State how concerns and overdue actions are escalated
Evidence
Connect the policy to live records
Avoid turning the policy into a duplicate logbook. It should signpost the current FRA, emergency plan, testing schedules, training records, action plan and relevant drawings or system information.
Version control matters. Record the owner, approval date, review date and changes made. Staff should be able to access the parts relevant to them, and managers should be able to show that the arrangements described are actually operating.
| Policy commitment | Supporting evidence |
|---|---|
| Maintain warning systems | Test log, service certificates, fault and impairment records |
| Keep escape routes available | Routine checks, defect records and corrective actions |
| Provide competent staff | Training matrix, induction records and drill observations |
| Control building change | Change process, contractor information and FRA review record |
| Monitor performance | Inspection findings, overdue-action report and management review |
Keeping it current
When should the policy be reviewed?
Set a planned management review interval proportionate to the organisation, but do not wait for the calendar where circumstances change. Review after an FRA revision, fire, near miss, enforcement concern, significant staffing or occupancy change, alteration, new process, system failure or evidence that arrangements are not working.
A review should test the content against actual practice. Record what was checked, what changed, who approved it and any actions raised.
- Compare the policy with the latest FRA and action plan
- Confirm named people and contact details remain correct
- Check inspection and maintenance schedules reflect installed systems
- Use drill, incident and false-alarm learning
- Consult other responsible persons in shared premises
- Brief affected people on material changes