How I Use the Fire and Emergency Procedure Template with Customers in Pilla
Fire is the risk that punishes complacency fastest. I've walked into businesses where the fire risk assessment is three years out of date, the extinguishers haven't been serviced, and half the team doesn't know where the assembly point is. Nothing has gone wrong yet, so nobody sees the problem. Then the fire authority turns up, and suddenly it's enforcement notices, prosecution threats, and a scramble to fix things that should have been in place from day one.
The gap is rarely knowledge. Most managers know they need a fire risk assessment and an evacuation plan. The gap is maintenance: keeping the assessment current, testing the alarm every week, running drills twice a year, making sure new starters get the induction before they start work. That's what this article is for. I'll walk you through what the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 actually requires, give you a template you can edit for your own operation, and flag the bits that trip people up most often.
Key Takeaways
- What is a fire and emergency procedure in health and safety? A fire and emergency procedure sets out how your business prevents fire, detects it early, evacuates everyone safely, and maintains fire safety systems. It covers responsible persons, risk assessments, detection and warning systems, evacuation routes, fire-fighting equipment, drills, and staff training
- Why do you need a fire and emergency procedure policy? The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires every employer to carry out a fire risk assessment, put appropriate fire safety measures in place, and ensure safe evacuation. A fire authority inspector will check your arrangements and can take enforcement action if they fall short
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the primary legislation for fire safety in workplaces in England and Wales. It replaced over 70 pieces of fire safety law and put the responsibility squarely on the "responsible person," which in most cases is the employer. If you run the business, fire safety is yours.
The Order requires you to carry out a fire risk assessment by a competent person, put in place appropriate fire safety measures, and keep them under review. That means detection and warning systems, escape routes, fire-fighting equipment, staff training, and a documented evacuation procedure. It's not a one-off exercise. The risk assessment has to be reviewed at least annually, or sooner if anything changes: layout, staffing levels, new equipment, a change of use.
I've worked with businesses that treat fire safety as a tick-box job. They get a fire risk assessment done when they open, file it, and forget about it. Two years later, they've knocked through a wall, added a mezzanine, and doubled their headcount. The assessment doesn't reflect any of it. A fire authority inspector will spot that in minutes.
Your fire safety arrangements need to cover responsible persons and their roles, the fire risk assessment and its action plan, detection and alarm systems, evacuation procedures and assembly points, fire-fighting equipment and who's trained to use it, fire drills at least twice a year, induction training for new starters, and ongoing maintenance of every system. Miss any of these and you're exposed.
The enforcement side is worth understanding. The fire authority can issue an alterations notice, an enforcement notice, or a prohibition notice. A prohibition notice shuts you down until you fix the problem. In serious cases, the responsible person can face prosecution, unlimited fines, and imprisonment. This isn't theoretical. It happens.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a fire and emergency procedure template in Pilla covering responsible persons, fire risk assessment requirements, detection and warning systems, evacuation procedures, fire-fighting equipment, staff training, drills, and ongoing monitoring. It follows the structure of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 so nothing gets missed.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Health and Safety System". Use the same tag across all of your health and safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it says "Company Name," replace it with your business name. Where it lists arrangements, check each one against what you actually have in place. If you don't have hold-open devices on fire doors, don't claim you do. If your drills happen once a year instead of twice, fix that before you publish the policy. A fire authority inspector will compare what's written down with what's actually happening, and the gap between the two is where enforcement action starts.
5. Fire and Emergency Procedure and Management
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Company Name have a legal duty to implement and maintain a fire safety management system to ensure that our activities in providing hospitality services, do not impact on the safety of our employees and those who visit our premises.
To manage fire safety our arrangements, consist of:
*Responsible Persons to coordinate the installation of fire safety systems to detect, warn and shut off key processes to facilitate a safe egress from the building.
Take responsibility to ensure employees undertake health & safety induction training including the emergency evacuation and fire assembly point.
Develop procedures and arrangements so all duty holders understand what their responsibilities are in the event of fire.
Arrange a fire risk assessment to be undertaken by a competent person to measure fire safety performance of the business, premise, potential emergency situations and who may be affected.
Provide resources to address issues identified in the fire risk assessment action plan and review the fire risk assessment annually to maintain high standards of fire safety management.
Ensure that the fire safety management systems are checked in house in keeping with recognised frequencies.
Ensure all fire safety systems are maintained by competent contractors in keeping with the frequencies set by the systems provider.
Implement procedures and control measures to mitigate risks that can be present on a daily basis, through proactive monitoring.
Provide fire-fighting equipment, arrange for maintenance annually, and ensure key personnel are provided with training to enable them to fight fire with the equipment installed.
Provide resources to refresh training on a regular basis and arrange fire drills to be undertaken twice a year.
Monitor arrangements and processes to ensure the fire management system for the business remains suitable and sufficient.
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The responsible persons section is the foundation. I'd want to see named individuals, not just job titles. "The manager on duty" is too vague. Name the people who coordinate fire safety systems, who ensure induction training happens, and who oversee the fire risk assessment. If they leave, update the policy the same week.
The fire risk assessment section should confirm that a competent person carries it out, that there's an action plan to address findings, and that the review happens annually. I'd want to see evidence that resources are actually allocated to fix what the assessment identifies. A risk assessment that generates actions nobody follows up on is worse than not having one, because it proves you knew about the problem and did nothing.
The drills and training section matters more than most people think. Twice-yearly drills, induction training before new starters begin work, and refresher training on a regular basis. I'd want to see that drill observations are recorded and acted on, not just that a drill happened.
Common mistakes I see:
The fire risk assessment review is the most common failure. Businesses get the initial assessment done and then let it sit for years. The Order requires annual review as a minimum. If your premises, activities, or staffing have changed and the assessment doesn't reflect that, you're non-compliant. I've seen businesses receive enforcement notices for exactly this.
Fire doors propped open with wedges, bins, and boxes. It happens in almost every premises I visit. A fire door that's propped open won't hold back smoke or fire. If you need doors held open for operational reasons, install hold-open devices linked to the fire alarm so they release automatically. Anything else is a compliance failure.
Drills not happening or happening too infrequently. The template says twice a year. I regularly find businesses that haven't run a drill in over 12 months. When I ask why, the answer is usually that it's disruptive. A real fire is more disruptive. Run the drills, time them, record the observations, and fix what doesn't work.
New starters working before they've had fire safety induction. This is a straightforward breach of the Order. Nobody should be on your premises in a working capacity without knowing the evacuation procedure and the assembly point. Not after their first week. Before they start.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.