General

It is important to understand that more than one piece of fire safety legislation and/or fire safety guidance can be applied to any individual premises. For instance take a school the The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 applies and there could be others. Fire Safety guidance documents including Guide 5 - Educational premises, Guide 1 - Offices and shops, Guide 6 - Small and medium places of assembly or Guide 7 - Large places of assembly may apply and if the school is a boarding school then Guide 3 - Sleeping accommodation could apply.

Introduction

Fire Safety in new and altered Hotels and Boardings Houses are subject to the Building Regulations and the guidence for fire matters are dealt with by Approved Document Part B Fire Safety. Within that document appendix G and H there is a list, of other guidence documents that may be relevant.

When premises are occupied fire precautions are controlled by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. and this order lays down legal requirements, check them out at the above link.

Fire Safety Guide for England and Wales

The most appropriate guide for Hotels, Boardings Houses and like Premises is likely to be Guide 3 - Sleeping accommodation and can be downloaded at the Department of Communities and Local Government web site. This guide is for all employers, managers and owners of premises providing sleeping accommodation. It tells you about how you might comply with fire safety law, helps you to carry out a fire risk assessment and identify the general fire precautions you need to have in place. It applies to premises where the main use is for sleeping accommodation. The premises addressed in this guide include,

• Guest houses and bed and breakfast accommodation;
• Hotels and motels;
• Hostels, e.g. Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., youth hostels, bail hostels or homeless persons’
  accommodation;
• Refuges, e.g. family accommodation centres, halfway houses;
• Residential health and beauty spa centres;
• Residential conference, seminar and training centres;
• Student halls of residence and areas of sleeping accommodation in other training institutions including military barrack style quarters;
• Those areas of buildings in boarding schools that provide sleeping accommodation; • seminaries and other religious colleges;
• The common areas of sheltered accommodation, where care is not provided (where care is provided, see residential care guide);
• Holiday chalets, holiday flat complexes, camping, caravan holiday parks (other than privately owned individual units); and
• Areas in workplaces, where staff ‘sleeping-in’ is a condition of the employment or a business requirement, as in licensed premises and hotels (but not including tied accommodation such as separate flats, houses or apartments)

This guide addresses:

• Sleeping accommodation for staff;
• Sleeping, dining or other accommodation for guests/residents; and
• Common areas for residents.

This guide is not intended for use in:

• Domestic premises occupied as a single private dwelling (which includes private flats or rooms);
• Hospitals, residential care and nursing homes; and
• Prisons and other establishments where people are in lawful custody.

It has been written to provide guidance for a responsible person, to help them to carry out a fire risk assessment in less complex premises. If you read the guide and decide that you are unable to apply the guidance, then you should seek expert advice from a competent person. More complex premises will probably need to be assessed by a person who has comprehensive training or experience in fire risk assessment. However this guide can be used for multi-occupied buildings to address fire safety issues within their individual occupancies.