Fire and rescue authorities must make arrangements to obtain necessary information for the purposes of:
- Extinguishing fires and protecting lives and properties from fires in its area (relevant fire and rescue service legislation for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
- Rescuing and protecting people from harm at road traffic collisions in its area (relevant fire and rescue service legislation for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
- Dealing with any other emergency function other than fires and road traffic collisions in its area (relevant fire and rescue service legislation for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
UK legislation sets the requirement for site-specific assessment. Collating and disseminating SSRI involves a number of tasks:
- Selecting premises to be inspected
- Assessing the nature and magnitude of the risk
- Considering a proportionate response
- Recording significant findings
- Making sure information is available in a useable form
A site-specific assessment takes account of current legislation on inspection information and includes information on preplanning firefighting tactics.
Tunnels and underground structures
The planned operational response to underground incidents should be sufficient to allow relevant safe systems of work to be implemented.
During any construction process, it will be necessary to review the Site-Specific Risk Information (SSRI) and emergency response plans so that any changes that will affect the existing risk information and guidance can be reflected throughout the project.
Pre-planning should be carried out jointly with other responder agencies that have knowledge of the environment, including volunteer rescue and leisure groups.
Hazardous materials and environmental protection
Fire and rescue services should assess the hazards and risks in their area relating to hazardous materials. This may be site-specific, for example, a factory using acid baths, or it may be generic, for example the local road network carrying hazardous materials.
The plans should also include information on pollution, prevention and control where a risk to the environment is identified at an incident. Although each nature conservation site will have its own environmental damage risks which can be captured with individual operational risk plans, a set of generic action plans will also help to identify generic environmental protection action to be taken in the early stages of an incident. Refer to the Environmental Protection Handbook.
In addition to general site-specific information, the following should be considered:
- Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR)
- Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations (MSER), enforcement notices, prohibition notices etc.)
- Notification and Marking of Sites (NAMOS) inspections and information
- British Agrochemicals Safety Inspection Scheme (BASIS) inspections and pre-plans
- The asbestos register
- Significant Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) assessments
- Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) plans and information
- CBRN(E) site-specific plans