Numerous alleged breaches of fire safety legislation in court buildings and prisons have been revealed following a Freedom of Information disclosure made by the Communities and Local Government department.

The development comes after Info4fire broke the news in June of an enforcement notice detailing CLG’s extensive breaches of the Fire Safety Order at its own headquarters in London, and a subsequent BBC investigation which found other government buildings in breach of the legislation.

Many of the 15 enforcement notices disclosed have been served on the Ministry of Justice or HM Prison Service.

One enforcement notice relates to a court premises that had no suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and no adequate first aid firefighting procedures or training. In addition, a fire at the premises had revealed the lack of a suitable evacuation plan or training in emergency procedures, highlighted by officers unwittingly returning defendants from court to a custody area which was smoke logged.

Another notice served on the director general of HM Prison Service details inadequate fire detection, no training in prison firefighting for officers after their induction, and cardboard furniture situated in sleeping accommodation.

In another case, this time served on the National Probation Service, there was a poor standard of fire stopping, even after work was carried out supposedly to mitigate the breaches in compartmentation following a previous inspection.

A further notice relating to another court building details the lack of a fire risk assessment, no suitable arrangements for the escorted evacuation of defendants from the custody suite, and inadequate compartmentation in the custody suite.

Some of the cases highlight the difficulties faced when a custody area of a court complex is run by a private contractor while the building as a whole is managed by the Ministry of Justice.

Details censored
The enforcement notices were disclosed by CLG earlier this month in response to a Freedom of Information request for all enforcement notices issued between 1 October 2006 and 7 June 2010 by the Crown Premises Inspection Group – the body charged with enforcing fire legislation on Crown buildings which works under the auspices of the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor and CLG.

The disclosure is only a partial one, however, and many of the details of individual premises and inspectors have been blanked out. CLG justifies the withholding of the rest of the information on the grounds that it would prejudice the security of prisons or other detention facilities, and/or it would be likely to endanger the health or safety of individuals.

CLG’s response to the Freedom of Information request states:

“We acknowledge the wide and strong public interest in increased public access to information relating to Crown premises, but we have also been obliged in this instance to take into account the health, safety and well being of individuals across the spectrum of Crown owned or occupied buildings. We have measured the above considerations against your request, and concluded that some of the information can be released, but the need to ensure the continued safety of relevant persons in certain Crown establishments outweighs the need to release information that may be prejudicial to their safety and well-being, and for the reasons above, we have redacted certain information contained within some of the notices.”

View the 15 enforcement notices