Business Fire Safety Archives - South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Two Sheffield businesses have been ordered to pay £4,000 after each failing to provide documents and information to business fire safety inspectors.

Brightside Motors LTD and Brightside Motors Repair Centre LTD received the fine at a hearing at Sheffield Magistrates Court on Wednesday 31 July after the firms, both based on 90 Holywell Road, Sheffield, failed to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The Court ordered they pay a fine of £2,500, cover prosecution costs of £569 and pay a victim’s surcharge of £1,000, totalling £4,069 each.

The case was proved in absence as no representatives from either company attended the hearing.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Business Fire Safety Inspecting Officers visited the company after a fire on the premises on 21 April 2023.

An enforcement notice was put in place after it was determined that the business had not been complying with a previously agreed fire safety plan.

The enforcement notice was also not followed which triggered an additional investigation and request for information and documentation about who is the responsible person at the property.

No documentation or information was received, resulting in court summons.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Andy Strelczenie, said: “Fire Safety is a core function of the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, our aim is always to work with businesses to ensure they can keep people safe, but it needs to be a two-way process.

“In this case, we have had little to no engagement from the company involved, despite multiple requests to improve and share information with us. This has ultimately resulted in this fine being issued.”

The fire service is calling on those responsible for South Yorkshire’s high-rise residential buildings to get in touch, a year after new regulations came into force.

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue says barely more than one in 10 owners or managers of the relevant buildings have supplied it with information they are now legally responsible for providing.

The law requires people responsible for buildings of 18m in height, or at least seven storeys, containing two or more domestic dwellings, to provide information to fire and rescue services including building plans, defective lifts and details of external wall systems.

The information is intended to help the fire service plan and provide an effective response hem plan and, if needed, provide an effective operational response.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Tony Carlin, said: “These regulations were introduced to meet the majority of the recommendations made in the Phase 1 report of the Grenfell Tower Enquiry, which required a change in the law. Even though the regulations came into force more than a year ago now, we’re still yet to hear from a large number of building owners or managers for whom the law applies to.

“Ultimately, the regulations are there to ensure that if a fire does occur in high-rise premises, we can tackle the incident safely. We will be contacting owners and managers we’ve not yet heard from to ensure compliance.”

The Fire Safety Regulations (England) 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.

Further information about the new regulations and what you need to do is available on the Government website which includes a series of fact sheets which provide more detailed information.

Responsible persons can share the required information here.

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