The pub fire safety log: what you must record, and how often.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for a pub must maintain fire precautions and keep evidence that they are tested. In practice that means a log book with a rhythm of checks. This is the rhythm, in one place.
Who is responsible
The Fire Safety Order puts duties on the "responsible person": in a pub, usually the operator of the business, in practice discharged day to day by the designated premises manager. The duties are to carry out and maintain a fire risk assessment, to keep the precautions it identifies working, and to be able to show both. The log book is how you show the second part. If your premises has sleeping accommodation, letting rooms change the risk profile substantially and your fire risk assessment and local fire authority guidance take precedence over any general schedule.
The schedule
Exact frequencies come from your own fire risk assessment and the British Standards it references (BS 5839 for alarms, BS 5266 for emergency lighting). The pattern below is the widely used baseline for a licensed premises:
| CHECK | TYPICAL FREQUENCY | WHAT TO RECORD |
|---|---|---|
| Fire alarm test | Weekly, from a different manual call point each time, at a regular advertised time | Date, call point used, whether the alarm sounded everywhere, who tested |
| Emergency lighting function test | Monthly short "flick" test of each luminaire | Date, units tested, any failures and the fix |
| Emergency lighting duration test | Annually, full rated duration, by a competent person | Certificate or report kept with the log |
| Fire extinguishers | Monthly visual check: in place, unobstructed, pin and tamper seal intact, gauge in the green | Date, locations checked, defects reported |
| Extinguisher service | Annually, by a competent engineer | Service labels and certificate |
| Fire doors | Weekly to monthly visual: closes fully, seals intact, not wedged, ironmongery working | Date, doors checked, defects and actions |
| Escape routes and exits | Daily before opening: unobstructed, unlocked while occupied, signage visible | Usually a line in the daily open-up checks |
| Fire drill | At least annually, more often with high staff turnover | Date, evacuation time, problems found, changes made |
| Alarm system service | Periodic (commonly six-monthly) by a competent engineer | Service report kept with the log |
| Staff fire training | At induction and refreshed regularly | Who, when, what was covered |
The failures that recur
- The same call point tested every week. The rotation exists to prove every trigger works; fifty-two tests of the point nearest the bar prove one of them does.
- Wedged fire doors, especially the cellar and kitchen doors in summer. It is the most common finding in licensed premises and the easiest for any visitor to spot.
- Emergency lighting never duration-tested. The monthly flick proves the lamp lights; only the annual test proves the battery lasts the escape.
- Drills that exist only as a date. A drill record with an evacuation time and a "what went wrong" line is evidence of a working procedure; a bare date is evidence of a pen.
- The log stopping when the person who kept it left. The schedule has to belong to a role, not a person.
Keeping it honest
Fire records are checked by more people than most operators expect: the fire authority on an audit, the EHO in passing, your insurer after any incident, and the licensing authority on review. All of them read gaps the same way. The practical fix is the same as for the food diary: checks assigned to named roles at a set rhythm, recorded when they are done rather than reconstructed later, with anything overdue surfacing to someone senior before it becomes a pattern. Whether that is a well-kept book behind the bar or a system that chases people automatically matters less than that it is real.
This guide is general information for UK pub and restaurant operators, not legal advice. Requirements can differ by premises and local authority: your fire risk assessment, your food safety management system and your local EHO are the authorities on your own site.