Is Fire Marshal Training a Legal Requirement?

It's one of the most common questions we're asked: is fire marshal training actually a legal requirement? The honest answer is that the law doesn't use those words, but it does place a clear duty on you that a trained fire marshal is the usual way to meet. This page walks through what the legislation says, who carries the duty, and what it means for a business of your size.

What the Law Actually Says

Fire safety in England and Wales is governed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, usually shortened to the RRO 2005 or the Fire Safety Order. Two duties in it matter here.

• Article 18 — safety assistance. The responsible person must appoint 'one or more competent persons' to help carry out the preventive and protective measures. A person counts as competent where they have sufficient training and experience, or knowledge, to do the job.
• Article 15 — procedures for serious and imminent danger. The responsible person must plan for emergencies and nominate enough competent people to help implement a safe evacuation of the premises.

Read together, these say you must have trained, competent people in place to manage fire safety day to day and to get everyone out safely if there's a fire. The law stops short of naming a role or handing you a headcount — it asks for competence, and leaves the number to your fire risk assessment.

Who Is the "Responsible Person"?

The duty sits with the 'responsible person'. In a workplace that's normally the employer. Where premises aren't a straightforward workplace, it's whoever has control of them — the owner, the occupier, or a managing agent.

If you run the business, in most cases that's you. You can delegate the day-to-day tasks to trained staff, but the legal responsibility for making sure fire safety is managed stays with the responsible person.

Does It Apply to Small Businesses?

Yes. The Fire Safety Order applies to all non-domestic premises, and there's no minimum headcount — a two-person studio is covered just as a busy warehouse is. The duty to appoint competent people doesn't switch off below a certain size.

What does scale is the number of competent people you need, which is proportionate to the size and risk of your premises. A small, low-risk office might be covered by one trained marshal plus a backup; a larger or higher-risk site needs more. Your fire risk assessment is what sets that figure — our guide on how many fire marshals your business needs works it through by floors, headcount, shifts, and risk.

How Fire Marshal Training Meets the Duty

The law asks for competent persons with sufficient training. Fire marshal training is the straightforward way to produce exactly that — people who can spot and reduce fire risks, run a safe evacuation, carry out sweeps and roll calls, and hand over to the fire service.

Our course is a half-day, on-site session delivered by an ex-fire-service trainer, with a certificate of completion issued on the day — useful evidence for your fire file that you've met the 'sufficient training' bar. It's non-accredited by design, which keeps it affordable and tailored to your building; the Fire Safety Order asks for competent, trained people rather than an awarding-body badge, so the course meets the duty with your team covered the same day. You can see the full details on our fire marshal training page.

What Happens If You Don't Comply

Fire and rescue authorities enforce the Order, and they have a range of tools before anything reaches a court:

• Alterations notices for higher-risk premises, flagging changes that need to be assessed.
• Enforcement notices setting out what you must put right, and by when.
• Prohibition notices that can restrict or stop the use of a premises where the risk to people is serious.

Most issues are resolved at the notice stage — you're told what to fix and given time to fix it. Where breaches are serious, though, the Order allows for prosecution and unlimited fines, and in the gravest cases imprisonment. The practical takeaway isn't to be alarmed; it's that having competent, trained people in place is both the legal expectation and the simplest way to stay on the right side of it. If you'd like the wider picture first, our guide on whether you really need fire marshal training covers it in full.