Brewery ordered to pay £27,000 for serious fire safety breaches

Steve JohnsNo CommentsNews

A brewery has been ordered to pay £27,481 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to serious breaches of fire safety legislation following a prosecution brought by the London Fire Brigade.

Punch Taverns PLC admitted guilt on seven contraventions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Sentencing occurred on Thursday 6 January 2011 at Thames Magistrates Court.

The Milestone Public House on Mile End Road was inspected by fire officers on 7 July 2008. The officers found a number of fire safety failings in both the Public House and the first floor, which was being used as a house of multiple occupation, including inadequate maintenance of the fire alarm and emergency lighting. An enforcement notice was issued and time was given for them to comply. Officers returned on 14 November 2008 and found a number of faults still hadn’t been fixed.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order places a duty on the ‘responsible person’ for the premises (the person who controls the premises e.g. an owner / landlord / employer) to carry out a fire risk assessment, take appropriate measures to minimise the risk of fire and implement general fire precautions to protect people in the premises if a fire occurs. The assessment and the fire precautions must be kept under review by the ‘responsible person’.

Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety Regulation, Steve Turek, said:

“London Fire Brigade will continue to take action when businesses, large or small, do not take their fire safety responsibilities seriously. Failure to comply with the law can, as this case has shown, result in a prosecution.”

A spokesperson for Punch Taverns said:

“Punch Taverns has an excellent safety record across its estate and remains committed to ensuring that all of our pub businesses are safe and fully compliant.

“Punch Taverns were only fined a total of £8,500 for these offences which arose in 2008 and the judge commented on Punch’s excellent safety record and highlighted that the company’s current compliance systems are ‘impressive’.

“It is regrettable on this occasion that the fire safety works, which our partner had previously agreed to undertake but failed to deliver, meant that the works which were already in progress, missed the deadline for completion of works by just two days.”