In October 2006 legislation changed the status of emergency lighting and fire alarm log books from maintenance records to ‘Essential Documents’.  It made them mandatory records that may be seized by the fire brigade, HSE or police as evidence so their content has to be correct.

Not all log books measure up.  We recently came across a fire alarm log book that enables the user to nominate a second ‘Responsible Person’ for a premises, a blatant contravention of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.

There is also an emergency lighting log book that features a record for the daily inspection of all emergency lights as though the manager of a busy hotel with 200 emergency lights in it can afford the time to inspect every single emergency light every single day.

This is a misinterpretation of a section in BS5266 that asks people to be aware of their emergency lights and to notice their condition as they move about the premises in the course of normal daily routines.  There is no requirement to record this and it’s inclusion merely highlights the incompetence of it’s creator.