Localism Act

[jokar]

The Localism Act received Royal Assent on 15 November 2011 and enshrined within this is the power given to RFA's to charge for certain functions that they undertake notably false alarms and fire safety as section 6 of the FRA 2004 has been included with certain provisios.

I suppose the debate is what for and who will they charge and where does that leave the fire alarm industry.  If for example CFOA think that burning toast is not a fire, its alight, and that sets off the alarm, then the alarm is doing its job surely.  Whether managerially people are put out on the street is a different matter but ignoring fire alarm signals leads to complacency and where next?

If the building owner is taken to task, what if the premises are leased to another Company.  Who actually send the signal, would the ARC get charged or the individual who responded to the alarm and phoned the enmergency number?  Do the maintenance company get charged or the designer of the system?

Do fire action notices need to be reviewed to not say "on hearing the alarm call the brigade"?

How many evacuation strategies require amendment?

and what about the assessor or IO who has done belt and braces and recommended a Category"L" in a buildng where ADB states that category "M" is sufficient.

[kurnal]

Do fire action notices need to be reviewed to not say "on hearing the alarm call the brigade"?

The Rosepark Fatal Accident Enquiry report gave very clear indications that the fire service should be called first and investigate later.

Will the Localism Act apply in Scotland?

[Midland Retty]

I'm not party to how this will be implemented, but I hope common sense is applied and that brigades don't simply start clobbering Joe Bloggs with charges because it brings in extra revenue.

I'd prefer to see an 'educate-before-penalty' system, where companies with troublesome false alarm issues are guided and educated about reducing false alarms, and given the opportunity to improve.

Then if those companies still fail to reduces AFAs without good reason they should then be charged IMO.

[jayjay]

Following on from Kurnals comments I have contacted my local FRS to determine their policy on calls from residential care premises both aged person and childrens. They have produced a guidance document on call challenging and have stated that for all residential care premises they will respond immediately to a call.
The attendance will be at least two appliances during the day time and three at night time.

They will not ask for callers to carry out an investigation if the call is the result of a fire alarm system activation.

This gives our care staff some confidence that if they make a 999 call an attendance will be immediate.

[nearlythere]

This from the CLG guidance on the Act.

The Localism Act includes a ‘general power of competence’. It gives local authorities the legal capacity to do anything that an individual can do that is not specifically prohibited; they will not, for example, be able to impose new taxes, as an individual has no power to tax.

I am reading this over and over again wondering if there is something in it which might prevent F&RSs from setting up companies to compete with the private sector.

Any thoughts?

[colin todd]

1. Kurnal, the Localism Act does not apply in God's own country. It is just another area in which Scotland becomes a different (and better) country.

2. The FIA have made it clear to the FRS that ARCs will not tolerate charges to them. I first began trying to explain ARCs, their role and how they operate to the then Home Office fire service inspectorate in 1986, when they believed that false alarms all came from comminication faults!!!!!  The FIA continue to explain to the FRS today.  I have to say that the task is more difficult than spelling Kurnatpowski backwards.  Some things never change.

3. There has been powers for FRS to charge and trade for some time. They service fire extinguishers, do commercial trading, carry out fire risk assessments, etc etc. They can only legally do this through arms length companies that are totally financially independent of the FRS.  Some of them almost certainly trade illegally and contrary to Euopean law.  Challenges to such activities are currently in progress.