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OFFICE AND SHOP PREMISES ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1966 - SECT 29

Maintenance of means of escape in case of fire, and inspection by appropriate authority.

29.(1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (8) and of regulations made
under subsection (9) and to the following provisions of this Act, it shall not
be lawful

(a)for more than twenty persons to be employed to work at any one time in any
premises to which this Act applies;

(b)for more than ten persons to be so employed elsewhere than on the ground
floor of any such premises; or

(c)for any person to be employed to work in any such premises in or underneath
which explosive or highly flammable materials of a kind prescribed by
regulations made by the Ministry are used or are stored in a quantity not less
than such as may be so prescribed;

(i)the aggregate of persons employed to work at any one time in both (or all)
of the sets of premises exceeds twenty; or

(ii)more than ten persons are employed at any one time to work in one of them
elsewhere than on the ground floor of the building, or, of the aggregate of
the persons employed to work at any one time in both (or all) of them, more
than ten are employed to work at that time elsewhere than as aforesaid.

(2) An application for the issue of a fire certificate with respect to any
premises must be made to the appropriate authority in such form as may be
prescribed by order made by the Ministry and state the greatest number of
persons employed to work at any one time in the premises or proposed to be so
employed and such other, if any, particulars as may be so prescribed, and, if
regulations made by the Ministry so require, must be accompanied by such plans
of the premises as may be specified in the regulations.

(3) Where such an application is duly made with respect to any premises, and
(if that is required by virtue of subsection (2)) is accompanied by the
specified plans, it shall be the duty of the appropriate authority to cause an
inspection to be carried out of the premises and the means of escape therefrom
in case of fire for the persons employed to work therein, or proposed to be so
employed, with which the premises are provided and, if satisfied that the
means with which the premises are provided are such as may reasonably be
required in the circumstances of the case, to issue a certificate to that
effect.

(4) Where the appropriate authority, after causing, in pursuance of subsection
(3), an inspection to be carried out of any premises, inform the applicant
that they will not issue a fire certificate with respect to the premises
unless specified alterations are made thereto, they shall specify the time
within which the alterations are to be carried out and, if the certificate is
not issued, it shall be deemed to have been refused at the expiration of the
time so specified or such further time as the authority may have allowed.

(5) A fire certificate issued with respect to any premises shall

(a)specify the greatest number of persons who, in the opinion of the
appropriate authority, can safely be employed to work at any one time in the
premises as a whole and, if the appropriate authority think fit, in any
specified part thereof;

(b)if the appropriate authority think fit, specify the greatest number of
persons who, in the opinion of the appropriate authority, can safely be in the
premises at any one time;

(c)specify precisely and in detail the means of escape provided and state
which of them are to be treated as relevant for the purposes of the following
provisions of this Act relating to the marking of exits affording or giving
access to means of escape;

(d)if the appropriate authority be of opinion that there inhere in the
premises special risks of the outbreak or spread of fire, state that the
authority are of that opinion and specify those risks;

(6) A fire certificate issued with respect to any premises shall be kept there
so long as it is in force.

(7) If any persons are employed to work in any premises in contravention of
subsection (1), the occupier of the premises shall be guilty of an offence and
liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds or, on a second or
subsequent conviction, not exceeding five hundred pounds.

(8) Subsection (1) shall not render unlawful the employment of persons to work
in any premises during the period beginning with the day on which an
application (accompanied, if that is required by virtue of subsection (2), by
the specified plans of the premises) for the issue of a fire certificate with
respect to the premises is duly made to the appropriate authority and ending
with the day on which, as the case may be, a fire certificate is issued
pursuant to that application or the issue of a fire certificate pursuant
thereto is refused.

(9) The Ministry may by ... regulations so modify subsection (1) that it
renders unlawful the employment of persons to work in premises of a class
specified in the regulations whose employment to work there would not
otherwise be unlawful by virtue of that subsection or so modify that
subsection that it ceases to render unlawful the employment of persons to work
in premises of a class so specified whose employment to work there would
otherwise be unlawful by virtue of that subsection.

(10) Subsection (2) of section 28 shall have effect for the purposes of this
section as it has effect for the purposes of that section.

© 1966 Crown Copyright

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