Fire Marshal on Annual Leave: Can the Building Remain Occupied?
The nominated fire marshal is on annual leave. Reception wants a yes or no. Can people still come into the building?
Often yes. That is not the same as “leave does not matter.”
What the Fire Safety Order actually requires
In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts duties on the responsible person. That is usually the employer, owner, landlord, occupier, or anyone else with control of the premises.
GOV.UK summarises the core responsibilities: carry out and review a fire risk assessment, tell people about the risks, put appropriate fire safety measures in place and maintain them, plan for an emergency, and provide staff with information, fire safety instruction and training.
Article 15 of the Order is the part that bites on this question. The responsible person must:
- establish appropriate procedures, including safety drills, for serious and imminent danger
- nominate a sufficient number of competent persons to implement those procedures so far as they relate to evacuation
- keep people out of areas that must be restricted on safety grounds unless they have had adequate safety instruction
A person is competent for that role where they have sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to implement the evacuation procedures properly.
The Order does not say “one named fire marshal must be physically present every day or the building closes.” It says the arrangements for evacuation must still be capable of working, with enough competent people nominated to make them work.
What official guidance expects in practice
Government guidance for people with fire safety duties is clearer about the day-to-day picture. In staffed premises, other than small ones, procedures will usually involve fire wardens (or equivalent) who help shepherd people out and check that their areas have been cleared.
The same guidance stresses nominating a sufficient number of competent people so the emergency procedures in the fire risk assessment can actually be delivered.
That is why “Dave is on leave” is the wrong framing. The right framing is: with today’s occupancy, layout, and shift pattern, do we still have enough trained people on site to run the plan?
When the building can stay open
The building can usually remain occupied if:
- the fire risk assessment still reflects how the premises are used
- enough competent people are available that day to implement the evacuation procedures
- cover for leave, sickness and late working was built into the numbers, not left to luck
- everyone on site knows who is acting as fire warden / marshal cover
- any special arrangements (for example people who need assistance to evacuate) still have someone assigned who knows what to do
If those conditions hold, annual leave for one nominated person does not automatically force a closure.
When you should not treat it as business as usual
Treat it as a problem if:
- you only ever trained one person and they are away
- the assessment assumes floor sweeps or assembly control that nobody left on site can do
- multi-storey or complex premises leave whole areas without cover
- night, weekend, or holiday staffing was never assessed
- extinguisher use forms part of your procedures and there is no longer an adequate number of trained people available for that role where your procedures require it
In those cases the honest options are simple: put competent cover in place before people arrive, reduce what you occupy, or keep closed the parts of the premises you cannot evacuate safely under the plan.
Hoping the alarm stays quiet is not a control measure.
Build leave into the system
Good practice looks boring and works:
- train more people than the minimum so leave and sickness do not hollow out cover
- put deputies and area cover on the rota, not only a single “fire marshal” name
- check the leave calendar against fire warden cover the same way you would check first aid cover
- brief reception and managers on who is covering each day
- review the fire risk assessment when occupancy, layout, or working patterns change
Article 18 of the Order also requires the responsible person, subject to limited exceptions, to appoint competent person(s) to assist with preventive and protective measures. That is wider fire safety assistance, not a substitute for enough people who can run an evacuation on the day.
Both threads point the same way: competence and capacity, not a single laminated badge.
The short answer
Yes, the building can often remain occupied while the nominated fire marshal is on annual leave, if a sufficient number of competent people remain available to implement the evacuation procedures and the fire risk assessment still holds.
No, you should not keep the doors open on the strength of one name that is currently on a beach.
When was the last time you checked fire warden cover against the leave calendar, not just the induction list?
Further reading
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Article 15: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/15
- Fire safety in the workplace (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/workplace-fire-safety-your-responsibilities
- A guide for persons with duties under fire safety legislation: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/people-with-duties-under-fire-safety-laws/a-guide-for-persons-with-duties-under-fire-safety-legislation-accessible
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