Fire Services Act 1947

1 Provision of fire services.

(1) It shall be the duty of every fire authority in Great Britain to make provision for fire-fighting purposes, and in particular every fire authority shall secure—

(a) the services for their area of such a fire brigade and such equipment as may be necessary to meet efficiently all normal requirements;

(b) the efficient training of the members of the fire brigade;

(c) efficient arrangements for dealing with calls for the assistance of the fire brigade in case of fire and for summoning members of the fire brigade;

(d) efficient arrangements for obtaining, by inspection or otherwise, information required for fire-fighting purposes with respect to the character of the buildings and other property in the area of the fire authority, the available water supplies and the means of access thereto, and other material local circumstances;

(e) efficient arrangements for ensuring that reasonable steps are taken to prevent or mitigate damage to property resulting from measures taken in dealing with fires in the area of the fire authority;

(f) efficient arrangements for the giving, when requested, of advice in respect of buildings and other property in the area of the fire authority as to fire prevention, restricting the spread of fires, and means of escape in case of fire.

(2) For the purposes of such arrangements as are mentioned in paragraph (d) of the last foregoing subsection, any member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of this Act shall, if authorised in writing by the authority maintaining the brigade, have the like powers of entering premises as are conferred upon authorised officers of councils by section two hundred and eighty-seven of the [26 Geo. 5. & 1 Edw. 8. c. 49.] Public Health Act, 1936; and accordingly that Act shall have effect as if the references in that section to an authorised officer of a council included references to a member of a fire brigade authorised as aforesaid, and as if among the purposes specified in subsection (1) of that section there were included the purposes of carrying out such arrangements as aforesaid.

(3) The Secretary of State may, after consultation with the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council constituted under this Act, make regulations prescribing standards of efficiency with respect to any of the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, and the standards may vary according to the requirements of, and the facilities available in, different kinds of locality; and any fire authority whose services are of a standard so prescribed shall, as respects the matter for which the standard is prescribed, be deemed to have complied with the provisions of subsection (1) of this section.