Primary Authority Partnership Scheme:

The scheme allows businesses, charities, or other organisations with locations across more than one local authority fire enforcement area to partner with a single fire and rescue service for consistent fire safety advice and regulatory compliance under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 which applies across England and Wales.

You can choose any fire and rescue service to partner with, not just the one nearest to your headquarters, whichever aligns beset with your business needs.

The scheme will also allow fire authorities to recover costs from its partner organisations.

Key elements of Primary Authority schemes

To provide reliable and consistent regulatory advice that the business requires in relation to fire safety.

• If a fire and rescue service has concerns about how a business, which has a Primary Authority partnership with a different fire and rescue service, is complying with fire safety regulations it will discuss the issue with the Primary Authority at an early stage.
• If a fire and rescue service believes that there is a statutory requirement for taking enforcement action, it will notify the Primary Authority of the action it proposes to take. However, in some cases there will be a need for enforcement action to proceed immediately, for example where action is needed urgently to ensure the safety of employees or members of the public.
• Where actions of a business are potentially subject to enforcement action by a fire and rescue service, the business’s Primary Authority will advise the fire and rescue service on whether it has given the relevant fire safety advice to the business and whether the enforcement action being proposed is consistent with that advice.
• If there is disagreement over whether proposed enforcement action is consistent with the advice given by the Primary Authority, the Better Regulation Delivery Office is empowered to determine what, if any, action should be taken.

For more information on entering a Primary Authority partnership with London Fire Brigade please contact the Business Support Group at FSRpartnerships@london-fire.gov.uk