The basis for health and safety law is the “Health and Safety at Work… Act 1974”. The Act sets out general duties that employers have towards employees and members of the public and employees have to themselves and each other. These duties are qualified in the Act by the principle “so far as is reasonably practicable”. This means that the degree of risk in a particular job must be weighed against the time, resources and the difficulty of taking measures to avoid or reduce the risk. The building operator and/or employer has a duty of care for everyone in their building(s), including employees and visitors, both able bodied and disabled and they have a duty to protect them against anything that may cause harm by controlling the risks. The Act and its relevant statutory provisions cover the risk of fire in that the employer must identify fire hazards and control them to minimise risk of injury to employees. Financial costs are not an excuse for failing to provide basic duty of care requirements such as fire alarms that cover the needs of all people.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work et cetera, Regulations 1999 explains more explicitly what employers are required to do to manage health and safety for their employees, and again this applies to every work activity.

Legislation states…

It is the responsibility of employers, building managers and service providers to ensure there are suitable procedures in place to evacuate everyone from the building in an emergency situation.

And…

Evacuation plans should already be in place in anticipation of an emergency situation.