When, in 1998, my friend Rosemarie Everton was appointed to the UK’s first ever chair in fire law, at the University of Central Lancashire, it marked the culmination of a 40-year endeavour on her part to establish the study of fire safety law as a serious subject of intellectual pursuit in the UK. Most importantly the recognition afforded by the chair confirmed this strand of jurisprudence as a legal discipline worthy of independent study.
At that time of her appointment, the Fire Precautions Act 1971 focused responsibility for fire safety on the fire authority – the local government-controlled fire service – but otherwise much relied on a patchwork of other statutory and common law duties upheld by individuals such as landlords or employers. The idea of a coherent structure that lay behind the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 was therefore to be welcomed. However, in its implementation, the new legislation prompted many questions for Rosemarie. This was because it effected a radical transfer of responsibility for fire safety, removing it from the fire authority and placing it instead on the “responsible person” – an individual - to be self compliant.
