Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Health and safety arrangements
Employers are required to make, give effect to and
in certain cases record appropriate health and safety
arrangements. These arrangements should cover planning,
organisation, control, monitoring and review of
preventive and protective measures.
Health surveillance
It is a requirement of the regulations that employers
ensure that, where appropriate, adequate health surveillance
is provided for employees at risk of exposure to
substances and activities that have the potential to cause
ill health.
Health and safety assistance
Employers are required to appoint one or more competent
persons to assist them to comply with their obligations
under safety legislation. Should more than one person
be appointed, there must be adequate arrangements for
ensuring cooperation between them. Preference should
be given to appoint ‘in company’ where competent
persons are available.
Procedures for serious and imminent danger
Employers must establish and implement procedures to
be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger
to persons working in their respective undertakings.
Common procedures are likely to be established
for fi re, bomb and environmental release. More specifi c
procedures will also be required for danger areas such
as exposure to asbestos, or rescues from confi ned
spaces or from activated fall arrest devices (harnesses).
Contacts with external services
In further support of the arrangements for serious and
imminent danger employers are required to ensure
that any necessary contacts with external services are
arranged, particularly as regards fi rst aid, emergency
medical care and rescue work.
Information for employees
Employers are duty bound to provide information to their
employees on, for example, the arrangements for emergencies,
competent persons and the risks to their health
and safety identifi ed by assessments. Information should
also be provided on the preventive and protective measures
required to prevent harm occurring. Where a child
is employed (under school leaving age) by an employer,
such information that would normally be provided to
an employee will also be required to be provided to a
parent.
Fire safety foundations
Cooperation and coordination
Every employer and self-employed person who shares
a workplace with any other employer or self-employed
person is required to cooperate with that other person
so far as is necessary to enable him to comply with his
statutory safety obligations.
In addition there is also a requirement to coordinate
the measures taken in compliance with statutory health
and safety obligations with measures by other persons
and to provide those other persons with specifi ed health
and safety information particularly in relation to the
fi ndings of risk assessments.
Figure 1.13 Cooperation and coordination with others
Persons working in host employer’s or self-employed
person’s undertakings
Host employers must ensure that the employers of
people working in the host employer’s undertaking
are given comprehensible information on risks to the
employees’ health and safety and any control measures
taken by the host employer to minimise the risks.
Host employers also have to provide employees of
other organisations with comprehensible information on
the risks to their health and safety such as emergency
response procedures.
Capabilities and training
This part of the regulations requires employers to consider
their employees’ capabilities prior to assigning
tasks and also ensure that in specifi ed circumstances
their employees are provided with adequate health and
safety training. In addition employers should also establish
a system to enable them to provide refresher training
where appropriate and to adapt training to take
account of new or changed risks to health and safety.
Such health and safety training must be conducted during
working hours.
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