05/07/2007 -� Fire safety guide launched

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