Anthony, I agree generally with what you said, but really it is not the job of the fire officer to come up with the guidance, it is the Government, who after all ''own'' the legislation. The problem is that when the Regs were introduced the civil service were in still de-regulatory mode, and there was a fear that guidance would smack of prescription. When the then Home Office held their private one-to-one consultations on the then proposed Fire Safety Bill, I did try to explain to the lady then in charge of fire safety policy that lay people actually liked being told what to do. I cited ADB and the Building Regs, suggesting that these, in tandem, give people the best of both worlds. However, it was made very clear to me that I was ''advocating prescription'', and that I could forget that, because prescription is out. Happily, I suspect that we can expect a lot more guidance for non-specialists under the RRO regime, and rightly so. We did put in writing our view to the Home Office that legislation wihout guidance is just a consultants' charter. I do not agree, however, that fire officers do not draw attention to the need for a FRA. My experience is that they do make people aware of this when they correspond/visit. With regard to the template for a suitable and sufficient FRA, what is needed, I believe, is a privately sponsored standard on this.
