--- title: 'Fire Safety and Your Premises Licence: How They Intersect' description: Article 43 of the Fire Safety Order suspends fire conditions on many pre-2006 premises licences. The displacement most operators miss. source: Duty Room source_url: https://dutyroom.com published_on: '2026-09-10' updated_on: '2026-09-10' market: uk sectors: - pubs - restaurants canonical_url: https://dutyroom.com/uk/briefings/fire-safety-premises-licence --- # Fire Safety and Your Premises Licence: How They Intersect Article 43 of the Fire Safety Order suspends fire conditions on many pre-2006 premises licences. The displacement most operators miss. Your premises licence and your fire safety obligations are enforced by different authorities under different laws. Most operators treat them as separate worlds. They are not. A fire safety failure can end up in a licensing review, and a premises that trips the fire authority's enforcement powers may find the police waiting behind them with a review application. ## The fire authority is a responsible authority Under [section 13(4) of the Licensing Act 2003](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/13), the fire and rescue authority is a responsible authority, with standing to apply for a review of your premises licence on public safety grounds. In 2023/24, 26% of the 412 licensing reviews cited the public safety objective (Home Office, year ending March 2024). The power is real but rarely used independently. Fire authorities are not broken out separately in the national data, but cross-referencing enforcement cases shows they typically support police-led reviews rather than initiating them directly. Essex County Fire and Rescue Service states plainly: "Failure to comply with the provisions of the FSO may lead to our officers requesting the local licensing authority to review the premises licence." ## Article 43: the displacement most operators miss [Article 43 of the Fire Safety Order](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/43) displaces fire safety conditions on premises licences where the Order applies. Many licences granted before 2006 carry conditions about fire precautions, escape routes, or occupancy that are technically suspended. The [s.182 guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-memorandum-revised-guidance-issued-under-s-182-of-licensing-act-2003/revised-guidance-issued-under-section-182-of-the-licensing-act-2003-december-2023-accessible-version) tells licensing authorities not to duplicate the Order with licence conditions (paragraphs 2.17 and 2.18). Many operators and licensing officers have never heard of the displacement. The practical consequence: a premises licence may state a capacity of 200. The fire risk assessment may calculate a different figure. Article 43 technically suspends the licensing condition, but both figures can surface at inspection. Where the two conflict, work to the figure in your current fire risk assessment. That is the number the fire authority will enforce. ## When fire enforcement triggers a licensing review **Proj3kt Nightclub, Burnley.** Lancashire Fire and Rescue served a prohibition notice for serious fire safety breaches in October 2025. The club reopened the same day in defiance. Police shut it down. Lancashire Constabulary submitted the licensing review, with the fire authority's enforcement as evidence. Revoked. A closure order followed, and it was not the first venue these operators had lost. **O2 Academy Brixton.** Two deaths in a crowd crush, December 2022. Failures in crowd safety and capacity management, issues sitting at the fire/licensing intersection. Police-initiated review. Not revocation, but 77 conditions for reopening. **Falstaff Hotel, Leamington Spa.** 38 Fire Safety Order charges. £362,000 fine. Prohibition notices on bedrooms used while the fire alarm was disabled. Separately, the licence was suspended for three months after a police application citing child welfare concerns. Fire and licensing enforcement running concurrently at the same premises, triggered by different authorities. ## The scale of enforcement A March 2026 snapshot of the National Fire Chiefs Council enforcement register showed 1,334 entries classified as "licensed premises," 647 of them [prohibition notices](https://dutyroom.com/uk/briefings/fire-safety-enforcement-ladder). Each one is a fire enforcement action on the public record that could, in principle, contribute to a [licensing review](https://dutyroom.com/uk/briefings/premises-licence-review-process). ## Where the regimes converge Fire safety and licensing are separate legal regimes. They share a premises, a public safety concern, and an enforcement pathway that can converge on the same committee hearing. A prohibition notice does not automatically revoke a premises licence. It creates a documented safety failure that any responsible authority can cite in a review. Our [fire safety resources](https://dutyroom.com/uk/resources/fire-safety) cover the Fire Safety Order duties, including the daily, weekly, and monthly checks. When those checks are also part of your licensing compliance routine, you are managing both regimes with the same set of actions. Our [licensing resources](https://dutyroom.com/uk/resources/licensing) cover how inspectors check conditions across all authorities. --- Published by [Duty Room](https://dutyroom.com/uk/), software for organizing, tracking, and evidencing operational compliance.