Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in ensuring that (a) adequate fire safety arrangements and (b) appropriate fire drills, including evacuations, are carried out for military bases in the UK.

The Secretary of State for Defence Policy Statement for Health, Safety and Environmental Protection requires that all organisations across Defence comply with the relevant statutory requirements that includes the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO).

The assessment of compliance with the FSO is the responsibility of the Director General Defence Safety Authority (DG DSA) who operates under a Charter from the Secretary of State for Defence. This assessment is undertaken by the DSA Defence Fire Safety Regulator (DFSR) who as the enforcing authority for the FSO undertakes a programme of risk based audits of Defence-occupied premises to verify compliance with UK fire safety legislation.

The DFSR audit process includes an assessment of the level of compliance against all the relevant articles in the FSO that include those relating to fire safety arrangements and the procedures in place to provide appropriate evacuation drills to follow in cases of serious and imminent danger to persons.

In addition to allocating assurance levels across each Regulatory Domain and to reflect the importance attached to this issue, DG DSA raised fire safety as a strategic risk in his 2016/17 Annual Assurance Report that will shortly be published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dsa-annual-assurance-reports