A guide for the emergency evacuation of disabled people from buildings
was today launched by the Executive with the support of the Disability
Rights Commission.
The Evacuation of Disabled Persons from Buildings Guide
provides practical advice on pre-planning for the evacuation of disabled
persons in the event of fire, highlighting the types of issues that
employers and others with fire safety responsibilities should consider
in their plans.
The 40-page document also outlines the relevant legislation: fire
safety, health and safety, and disability discrimination law. The guide
is the first bespoke guidance for evacuation of disabled persons to be
issued by the Executive and complements a series of sector-specific
guides on new fire safety legislation.
Minister for Community Safety Fergus Ewing said:
"For many years, there has been confusion among employers about their
responsibilities in relation to disabled members of staff under fire
safety legislation.
"The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 placed a number of duties on
organisations to prevent discrimination against disabled people,
including requiring employers to make 'reasonable adjustments' for
disabled employees who might be disadvantaged by a particular practice
or a physical feature of premises.
"Our series of fire safety guides highlights the need to take account
of, and reflect the needs of disabled people when assessing risk and
considering fire safety measures. "However, we recognise that the
evacuation of disabled people merits specific guidance.
"This new guide contains constructive advice about understanding and
accommodating the needs of disabled people and will assist persons when
planning their emergency fire action plan."
DRC Scotland Director Adam Gaines added:
"The anticipatory nature of the Disability Discrimination Act requires
building managers and other service providers to think through all new
and existing policies and procedures and to design out disability
discrimination from the start.
"This new guidance should prove a useful tool in ensuring that, in the
event of an evacuation, the autonomy, dignity and safety of each
individual - disabled or non-disabled - is respected."
Neil Turnbull, on behalf of the Chief Fire Officers' Association
(Scotland), added:
"CFOA (Scotland) welcomes this latest guide in support of the Fire
(Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
"The practical fire safety advice that is offered by this guide can only
help us in our joint efforts to ensure that Scotland is a safe place to
live, work and visit.
"These guides need to be useful and informative to a range of
stakeholders who have responsibilities under the Act and we will
continue to work closely with the Scottish Executive in order to achieve
this."
The guide is not intended for domestic premises.
A series of sector specific guides for those with responsibilities under
Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland)
Regulations 2006 are being published on a rolling basis. Three guides
(relating to care homes, offices and shops, and factories and storage
premises, have already been published on the
Firelaw website. A fourth guide, for
educational and child day care premises, has been launched on the
website today
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