Legislation with more teeth and a more effective partnership between the fire industry and fire and rescue service were two of the themes of a keynote address given at the Fire Industry Association annual conference last week.

Les Byrom, chairman of the Business and Community Safety Forum – a government appointed consultation body – said he was unsure whether fire safety legislation such as the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, as currently enacted, would work in the longterm.

While stopping short of calling for a return to a more prescriptive approach as embodied in the previous Fire Precautions Act, Mr Byrom warned that the Fire Safety Order may need strengthening.
 

“My fear is that there will be a tragedy and a coroner will say that there should have been some sort of compulsory regulated system,” he told Info4fire after his address.

He also expected the modernisation of the fire and rescue service to continue, for example in the way firefighters are mobilised when the new regional control centres are established.

He put the lack of consistency in enforcement down to the decentralised nature of the fire and rescue service, but said it was working towards greater unity and consistency. He said the abolition of the fire service inspectorate had created a big gulf as to who was monitoring operational quality in England, and didn’t think that the role taken up by the Audit Commission would stand the test of time. “The present situation leaves a lot to be desired,” he said.