The Fire Safety Order 2005 and your kitchen
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the principal fire-safety legislation for non-domestic premises in England and Wales. For commercial kitchens it carries specific implications.
The responsible person duty
The Order names a "responsible person" for every non-domestic premises — typically the operator or owner. This person must assess fire risks and put measures in place to manage them. The duty is non-delegable in legal terms: you cannot transfer the responsibility to a contractor.
Kitchen-specific implications
Kitchen extract systems are explicit fire-risk items in the standard fire-risk-assessment framework. The grease build-up that accumulates in extract ductwork is a fire-propagation pathway — fires that start in canopies travel along ductwork and emerge at unexpected points in the building. Managing this risk requires documented kitchen extract cleaning.
How the duty is discharged
The Order does not specify how the duty must be discharged. In practice, the recognised industry route is:
- Commission a fire risk assessment that identifies extract grease accumulation as a hazard.
- Commission kitchen extract cleaning to TR19 Grease specification on a frequency aligned to usage classification.
- Retain TR19 certificates as documentary evidence of the cleaning schedule.
Enforcement
The Fire and Rescue Service enforces the Order. Penalties for breach include unlimited fines and (rare but real) imprisonment for the responsible person. In practice, FRS inspections are reactive — triggered by fire incidents or complaints. The risk to your business is the post-fire investigation, not a routine inspection.
What this looks like in your records
If a fire happens, the FRS investigator will ask for: your fire risk assessment, your TR19 certificates for the period of cover, your records of action on any identified hazards. Have those readily available.
See our TR19 cleaning service.
