Workplace emergencies: fire and evacuation plans

When the fire alarm sounds, you should already know where to go. Your employer’s plan must work for the night shift, the visitor in a meeting room and the colleague who cannot use the stairs. A notice beside the lift is no substitute for clear instructions, trained people and a safe way out.

What the law actually requires

Emergency planning is a legal duty. In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, usually called the Fire Safety Order, governs fire precautions. Across Great Britain, regulation 8 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires procedures for serious and imminent danger, whatever the hazard. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 cover first aid in Great Britain. Separate fire legislation applies in Scotland, and Northern Ireland has its own fire, health and safety and employment laws. See the jurisdiction section.

Local fire and rescue authorities enforce fire safety in most workplaces in England and Wales. HSE enforces it at certain construction premises and remains a regulator for general workplace health and safety. This guide explains the law as at 1 October 2026.

Who is legally responsible?

In England and Wales, the responsible person for a workplace is normally the employer, where the workplace is under its control. Landlords, managing agents and others who control premises also have duties to the extent of that control. A contractor responsible for maintaining fire precautions can have duties too.

The responsible person must assess fire risk, take the required precautions and organise the response. Appointing fire marshals or wardens does not transfer those duties away from the employer. Employees must take reasonable care, co-operate with fire precautions and report serious danger or safety defects. Breaching those employee duties can be a criminal offence if it puts people at risk of death or serious injury.

What the emergency plan must contain

Regulation 8 covers serious and imminent danger from any hazard. Article 15 of the Fire Safety Order adds fire-specific procedures, including safety drills. Your assessment and plan should address the following. The article references in this table apply to England and Wales.

Since 1 October 2023, every responsible person in England and Wales must record the full fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements, regardless of staff numbers. They must also record the identity of anyone engaged to make or review the assessment and their own contact information, including a UK-based address. The previous recording exemptions, including for some employers with fewer than five employees, no longer apply. GOV.UK explains the recording and information-sharing duties.

Dangerous substances can require additional warning systems, escape arrangements and information for emergency services. Those duties are not limited to large stores. HSE also identifies a separate notification and site-marking requirement where 25 tonnes or more of dangerous substances are held. See HSE’s emergency procedures guidance and our guide to storing hazardous substances safely at work.

Evacuation in practice: what happens when the alarm sounds

A fire evacuation plan is part of your wider emergency arrangements. Other procedures may cover gas leaks, medical emergencies, flooding, loss of power or violence, depending on your workplace’s risks. The response will not always be evacuation. Follow the procedure for the particular danger.

1. Raise the alarm. If you discover a fire, operate the alarm and move to safety. Arrange for someone to call 999 from a safe place and give the address and known details. Do not delay escape to investigate.
2. Use the nearest safe escape route. Follow the evacuation plan, close doors behind you if safe and leave belongings. Do not use a lift unless it is specifically included in the building’s safe evacuation arrangements. Go to the designated assembly point.
3. Account for everyone. Report to the person coordinating the evacuation. Include visitors, agency staff and contractors. Wardens should check areas only where the plan requires it and it remains safe. Tell the emergency services if someone may be missing and where they were last seen. Do not go back to look for them.
4. Stay out until it is safe. Work must not resume while serious danger persists. Follow the emergency services’ instructions and the site’s arrangements for authorising re-entry.

Keep escape routes clear. Do not wedge fire doors open or store boxes where they obstruct escape. Report a locked exit, faulty alarm or failed emergency light promptly. Our guide to health and safety signs explains the signs used to mark escape routes.

How often must you drill and train?

There is no statutory interval in days or months. What GOV.UK says is at least one fire drill per year, with results recorded as part of the plan, plus training for new starters when they join.

Cover every shift in your training and drill programme. A drill at lunchtime tells you little about a warehouse running with fewer staff at night. Plan exercises that test night and weekend arrangements, absence cover and assistance for people who need it. The law requires adequate training and sufficient competent people, not a fixed number of drills for each shift.

Give new starters training when they join, repeat it periodically and update it when risks change. Safety training must take place during working hours. Walk the route, identify alarm points and show people where to assemble. If an exercise exposes a problem, change the plan and check that the fix works. See what safety training employers must provide.

The emergency response team: wardens and competent persons

The law requires a sufficient number of competent people to implement evacuation procedures. It does not prescribe one marshal for every twenty staff or one per floor. The number and roles depend on the layout, occupancy, hazards and assistance people may need. Account for nights, overtime, holidays and sickness.

Wardens need training for their assigned tasks, which may include guiding people out, reporting blocked routes, checking designated areas where safe and helping with assisted evacuation. Firefighting is a separate role requiring suitable training and equipment. Nobody should delay escape or put themselves at risk to tackle a fire.

Name the nominated people and deputies in the plan and tell staff how to identify them. Employers sharing a building must coordinate their arrangements. The host must also give outside employers relevant risk information and the identities of people nominated for evacuation. That includes employers supplying agency workers. Self-employed contractors also need relevant information and instructions.

Can you walk out if you think you are in danger?

In Great Britain, employment law protects employees and other workers who leave, propose to leave or refuse to return while danger persists, where they reasonably believe the danger is serious and imminent and could not reasonably be expected to avert it. There is also protection for taking appropriate steps to protect yourself or others.

These protections are in section 100 and section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. You do not have to prove afterwards that the danger was real, but your belief must have been reasonable at the time. Appropriate protective steps depend on what you knew and the facilities and advice available. Seriously negligent action can fall outside protection. Once safe, report what happened and keep a record of what you saw, what you did and any response from your employer.

Disabled staff and visitors: evacuation for everyone

Your plan must provide safe escape for people who need assistance, including disabled staff and visitors. Discuss needs with the person rather than assuming that everyone with the same impairment needs the same help. A personal emergency evacuation plan, or PEEP, records the route, assistance, equipment, communication and backup arrangements. Standard plans can cover visitors whose needs are not known in advance.

The government’s means-of-escape guide describes evacuation lifts and assisted escape. A refuge is a protected waiting point within an evacuation strategy, not a place to leave someone until firefighters arrive. The plan must not depend on the fire and rescue service making the evacuation work. Train the people who will assist and practise the arrangements safely.

There is no separate workplace regulation requiring a document with the name “PEEP”. That does not make safe evacuation optional. Fire safety duties and, where applicable, reasonable adjustment duties still apply.

A separate residential regime has applied in England since 6 April 2026. The Residential Evacuation Plans Regulations cover buildings with at least two residential units that are at least 18 metres high, have at least seven storeys, or are more than 11 metres high with a simultaneous evacuation strategy. The responsible person must offer identified residents whose ability to evacuate is compromised a person-centred fire risk assessment. These are residential duties, not a replacement for workplace arrangements. In a mixed-use building, coordinate the two.

First aid: the legal minimum

In Great Britain, employers must provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel so employees can receive immediate attention if injured or taken ill at work. A first-aid needs assessment determines the provision. Consider hazards, workforce size, lone working, shifts and distance from emergency medical services.

There is no statutory ratio of first-aiders to staff. HSE’s minimum provision is a suitably stocked first-aid box, an appointed person to take charge of arrangements and call emergency services, and information for employees. An appointed person does not need formal first-aid training, but is not a substitute for a trained first-aider where the assessment requires one. Plan cover for absence and every occupied shift.

Tell people where the kit is, who can help and how to call for assistance. For a medical emergency, get help promptly and follow the emergency call handler’s instructions. Our guide to workplace first aid explains how to assess what your workplace needs.

What must be written down

Keep records that show both the arrangements and whether they work:

• The full fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements where required, with assessment reviews and dutyholders’ contact details.
• Evacuation instructions, drill dates, results and action taken after problems.
• Alarm, extinguisher and emergency-lighting maintenance and test records.
• Training records and current arrangements for nominated people and assisted evacuation.
• Accident records and any required RIDDOR reports.

The full-assessment recording rule described above applies to England and Wales. Do not assume every record listed here has an identical statutory retention period. An accident book is required under social security law for businesses with ten or more employees, and for mines, quarries and factories. RIDDOR covers specified work-related injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences, not every accident. See reporting an injury at work and health and safety records.

Enforcement and penalties: blocked exits, missing plans

In England and Wales, fire and rescue authorities can issue enforcement notices requiring breaches to be remedied. Under article 31, they can prohibit or restrict use where the risk is so serious that use should not continue. Imminent risk of serious personal injury can make a prohibition take immediate effect; imminence is not a condition for every prohibition notice.

Breaching specified fire duties and putting people at risk of death or serious injury can bring an unlimited fine, up to two years’ imprisonment, or both on conviction on indictment. Directors and managers can be personally liable where an offence occurred with their consent or connivance, or through their neglect. From 1 October 2023, fines for certain other offences, including intentionally impersonating a fire inspector and failing without reasonable excuse to meet specified inspector requirements, rose from a £1,000 maximum to unlimited.

A locked emergency exit, faulty alarm or missing assessment can lead to enforcement and prosecution. The offence depends on the duty breached and the statutory conditions; not every paperwork defect automatically carries the maximum penalty. If you face immediate danger, get to safety and call emergency services. For unresolved fire risks, contact the local fire and rescue authority. See raising safety concerns and HSE’s enforcement powers for other workplace risks.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: which laws apply?

In Scotland, fire duties come from Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service enforces them. The Great Britain emergency procedures, first-aid and employment protections discussed above apply in Scotland, but England and Wales’s Fire Safety Order and its 2023 recording changes do not.

Northern Ireland uses the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, enforced by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. It also has separate management-of-health-and-safety rules and the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982, enforced by HSENI.

Danger-related detriment protection is in article 68 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, and dismissal protection is in article 132. Do not use Great Britain’s tribunal deadline change to calculate a Northern Ireland claim. Seek advice from the Labour Relations Agency. Our guide to Northern Ireland employment law explains the separate system.

What is changing

1. 31 May 2021Workers gain danger-related detriment protection

   Protection extends beyond employees in Great Britain and, through a separate amendment, Northern Ireland.

2. 1 Oct 2023Full fire assessment recording in England and Wales

   Every responsible person must record the full assessment and fire safety arrangements. Additional recording and information-sharing duties also apply.

3. 6 Apr 2026Residential evacuation duties in England

   The new regime covers specified residential buildings. It does not replace workplace evacuation duties.

4. 1 Oct 2026Longer tribunal time limits in Great Britain

   The usual limit for new danger-related detriment and dismissal claims becomes six months minus one day. Earlier incidents normally retain the previous limit.