Statutory Compliance Services
Fire risk assessments, disabled access audits and legionella risk assessments
Onaek Building Consultants – Everything under one roof. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.
Fire Risk Assessments
Introduction
The Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety) 2005 came into force on 1 October 2006, and replaced over 70 pieces of fire safety legislation. Any building which held a fire certificate under the old Fire Precautions Act 1971 will have the certificate abolished.
The Law
Where persons are employed to work, it is a requirement under the (RRO) 2005 to carry out a fire risk assessment. Where there are 5 or more employees, the findings must be recorded in writing. Fire and Rescue Authorities are the enforcing body for the Order. Failure to assess the fire risks is an offence under the regulations and the Fire and Rescue Authorities have a statutory duty to enforce compliance with the Order. In serious cases, penalties of a fine up to £5000 for each offence or up to 2 years imprisonment can be implemented.
Does this affect your building? Premises that the law relates to include:
- Community Halls
- Places of Worship
- Schools
- Sports Centres
- Hotels and Hostels
- Factories, Warehouses and Industrial Units
- Tents and Marquees
- Offices and Shops
- Care Homes and Hospitals
- Pubs, Clubs and Restaurants
- Sheltered Accommodation
- The shared areas of properties that several households live in
The RRO requires employers, building occupiers and owners to identify and eliminate or control fire risks within their premises and to ensure it is safe for everyone to use. If you create a risk then you are legally obliged to control that risk. Under the Order, the duty to appoint a competent person to carry out the risk assessment lies with the ‘responsible person’. This could be the owner, employer or occupier. After the fire risk assessment is produced the responsible person must then implement appropriate fire safety measures to minimise the risk to life from fire; and to keep the assessment up to date.
The Advantages to You
- Save money – Most Insurance companies offer significant annual savings to businesses that have done a FRA. Also The Regulatory Impact Assessment carried out before the legislation was introduced estimated that over a 10 year period, ongoing savings to business would be over £380m
- Comply with the law – All companies must now conduct a FRA
- Reduce Liability – Claims against companies and individuals have been rising dramatically
- Reduce the risk of business failure – 43,000 commercial property fires in the UK every year. 80% of companies that have a major fire go bust within a year
Why choose Onaek?
We are staggered to see how many companies are advertising ‘online’ FRA’s. In our experience every building is different and each assessment must begin with a blank piece of paper.
Our fixed estimate provided for each job includes a site visit. This will include a lengthy discussion on site with the responsible person to discuss existing systems and measures in place.
This will be followed by a thorough walk round survey which can be categorised in 5 steps:
- 1. Identify fire hazards
- 2. Identify people who are at risk
- 3. Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risks
- 4. Record, plan, instruct inform and train
- 5. Monitor and review
What Onaek won’t do!
Onaek Building Consultants Ltd are a professional firm of surveyors and designers with years of experience designing, maintaining and auditing buildings. Unlike many of our competitors we will not try and sell you fire safety products as part of conducting your FRA. So please be aware of cheaper estimates who then try and sell you unnecessary fire safety signs, emergency light fittings or fire extinguishers.
Disabled Access Audits
The Equalities Act 2010 brings together lots of different equality laws, including amongst them the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The new act makes equality law simpler and outlaws discrimination against people with defined “Protected Characteristics”. The guidance accompanying the Act confirms “Protected Characteristics” as being;
- Disability
- Age
- Gender Reassignment
- Pregnancy and Maternity
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Marriage and Civil Partnership
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
The Act applies throughout England, Wales and Scotland and applies to many areas including employment, the provision of goods, facilities and services and premises, education and transport.
Discrimination against disabled people includes people with physical impairments affecting senses such as sight and hearing as well as mental impairments including learning disabilities and mental illness. Daily activities likely to be affected by such impairments may include the following:
- being able to recognise physical danger
- manual dexterity
- mobility
- speech, hearing eyesight
- physical co-ordination
- continence
- the ability to lift or carry objects
- memory, or ability to learn, concentrate or understand
Onaek offer a comprehensive range of services designed to ensure clients meet their requirements under the act. Our experience in helping clients and providing solutions actually precedes the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. In that time our experienced and highly qualified team have assessed thousands of buildings of widely differing types and uses.
The Audit
Onaek’s DDA Access Audit will consider the needs of people with a broad spectrum of characteristics and involve a detailed appraisal of the existing facilities. We will prioritise the issues raised in our report along with providing budget costing’s for each item. The audit will identify what steps can ‘reasonably’ be taken to eliminate discriminatory barriers, although the definition of reasonable should consider some or all of the following:
- how much an alteration will improve the situation for a disabled person
- how easy it is to make the changes
- the cost of the measure, both financially and in terms of the disruption that it will cause
- the building owner’s resources
Examples of adjustments which the client might reasonably have to make may include the following:
- altering premises
- allocating some duties to an employee
- altering working hours
- supplying additional training
- acquiring or making changes to equipment
And what happens after the audit?
- We can provide strategic advice and interpretation of legislation
- We can discuss possible improvements and produce compliant design proposals
- We can provide support with planning, procurement and project management
- We can provide advice on appropriate criteria for future developments
Legionella Risk Assessments
What is Legionellosis?
Legionellosis is an infection caused by bacteria of the genus Legionella. The most serious is Legionnaires’ disease, a severe pneumonia with a relatively high fatality rate, which was first recognized in 1976. The predominant cause of Legionnaires’ disease is L. pneumophila. Legionella spp. these are opportunistic pathogens of humans and normally inhabit warm moist or aquatic environments where they grow in association with other organisms. Their predilection for warm water means that they are capable of colonizing artificial water systems and equipment containing water. Legionnaires’ disease is not transmitted from person to person, but is of environmental origin and usually contracted by inhaling the organism in an aerosol produced from water contaminated with the organism.
The ubiquitous occurrence of Legionella spp, means that all water systems are susceptible to contamination with legionellae via the water supply or dust entering the system. It is therefore normal practice to assume that a system can become contaminated. Control of the contamination can be achieved by the design, construction and operating conditions of the equipment or system. It is not usually necessary to demonstrate the presence of legionellae by laboratory analysis of samples.
Suitable and sufficient assessment of risks allows appropriate control measures to be put in place to protect the health and safety of employees and members of the public who could be affected by work activities. Legionella risk assessment is no different, and is a legal requirement under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, all of which make specific requirements for risk assessment.
Building managers may be criminally responsible under the above legislation, not only for their employees but for all those who are at risk including visitors and members of the public. This risk also extends to Landlords and other providers of residential accommodation.
How can we help?
Staff at Onaek have many years of experience in providing advice on Legionella related issues. This advice ranges from providing individual Risk Assessments and the preparation of the Schemes of Control required to overcome the identified risks, right through to the provision of system design and staff training for both management and operatives.
A risk assessment is a live document, not a one-off exercise, and needs to be reviewed regularly, ideally in anticipation of, rather than in response to changes, or where no changes have taken place at least every two years.
Additionally there is a requirement to have a “responsible person” in place, someone who takes day to day responsibility for controlling any identified risk from Legionella, again Onaek can assist, either through the provision of site specific training or through the provision of personnel to cover some of the less frequent but more technical aspects of the control measures.
As well as these more “hands on” aspects of Legionella control, Onaek are also well versed in the creation of policy and procedure required to ensure the ongoing safety of Water Systems in any organisation.
