Contribution by: Steve Chicken

Comment by: Steve Chicken

Focus area: Fire safety regulation

Regulator concerned: Fire safety (Fire Authority)

Comment:
As a Fire and Rescue Authority County Durham and Darlington FRS take our interaction with the business community very seriously, we have developed several mechanisms to ensure that the voice of our business community which consists mainly of organisations falling within the scope of the review of enforcement of the FSO in small and medium size enterprises.
The two main tools that we have adopted can be outlined as follows:

Fire Liaison Panel – The business community are invited to become members of our Fire Liaison Panel which meets twice/year to discuss emerging issues together with anything that the membership wish to raise and to comment on the service provided by our Fire Safety team and Operational staff.

Questionnaires – We send a questionnaire to every premises where we have carried out an audit in order to obtain the views of those we interact with during our visits. The information is discussed at our regular Team meetings and findings acted upon, negative comments are followed up by Senior Fire Safety staff to ensure that we learn from any comments raised.