STARTING FROM SCRATCH

What legislation will we have to comply with?

Although the list of Acts of Parliament relating to hotels is far from short, it need not be daunting. They have been drawn up to protect guests, the people who will provide you with a living. You will therefore need a working knowledge of what you must comply with, not only when you have started to run a hotel but when you are considering which to go for.

If, for example, Fire Regulations have not been complied with, the cost of implementing them could be considerable and might be high enough to thwart your plans. We shall look at the most important legislation you need to know about before you begin the search in earnest.

Fire Regulations

As recently as October 2006, fire safety law, much of which dated back a number of decades, was revoked in favour of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, made under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001.

The new law:

• emphasises preventing fires and reducing risk
• makes it your responsibility to ensure the safety of everyone who uses your premises and in the immediate vicinity
• does away with the need for fire certificates.

Fire regulations now apply to all business premises, including those where sleeping accommodation is provided, and the owner is required to carry out a risk assessment in respect of those premises.

To help you carry out a risk assessment, a phrase you will meet many times throughout this book, various guides may be downloaded from www.firesafetyguides.communities.gov.uk (Guide 3 refers to sleeping accommodation). You may seek advice by email: fire.safetyreform@communities.gov.uk or you may consult the Fire Safety Officer of your local Fire and Rescue Service.

By reference to the guides, you should be able to carry out a fire risk assessment. If your premises are complex, you may need to employ an expert to help you.

At a minimum, the following must be provided within your fire risk assessment:

• a fire alarm system
• fire extinguishers (of the type approved locally)
• an emergency lighting system
• fire resisting and self-closing internal doors.

In addition, further installations, eg a fire escape, may be needed, notices must be displayed in bedrooms to tell guests what to do if a fire is discovered, and all equipment must be regularly inspected and serviced and the results recorded.

The type of notice that should be displayed in bedrooms and at callpoints is shown in Figures 3 and Figure 4.

Exit signs need to conform to the Health & Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. A free leaflet is available from HSE Books (see page 106). Your local Fire Safety Officer will advise.

Still on the subject of fire safety, regulations regarding fire retardant standards for furniture and furnishings are constantly under review. You will need to include the fire-retardant quality of your furniture and furnishings in your risk assessment. Your local Fire Safety Officer will advise.

If you employ anyone, the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 (as amended in 1999) may require you to assess fire risks and additional requirements may be imposed by the Fire Safety Officer. As always, seek professional advice before committing yourself.

Food Regulations

When carrying on any form of business involving food, the premises are subject to the provisions of the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 (with equivalent regulations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The relevant Act of Parliament is the Food Safety Act 1990, the most important aim of which is to ensure that all food produced for sale is safe to eat. The Food Labelling Regulations 1996 also require descriptions to be accurate.

Included in the main regulations are:

• The premises – its construction, sanitary and handwashing facilities, ventilation, lighting, drainage, and changing facilities.
• Food preparation, etc- the maintenance, cleaning and disinfecting of rooms used.
• The equipment – cleaning and disinfecting. (Anti-bacterial agents must be used to reinforce the cleaning process.)
• Personal hygiene – the necessity for personal cleanliness and wearing of protective clothing where appropriate.
• The food – its handling and washing, plus the temperature at which certain foods must be kept, also disposal of waste.
• The water supply – adequate drinking water to be available and used for making ice.
• A requirement for food handlers to receive hygiene training.

The Industry Guide to Good Hygiene Practice: Catering Guide (ISBN 0 900 103 00 0) gives detailed advice on the interpretation and application of these regulations.

Unless you, as a food handler, are supervised or instructed by someone who has received formal hygiene training, you may be required by your local EHO (Environmental Health Officer) to attend a Basic Hygiene Course. Various training organisations run these courses, as do some Local Authorities.

Assessing risk is now a requirement for nearly all aspects of your business (see pages 103-105). With the help of booklets obtainable from your local EHO, you must identify and control potential food hazards under HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point).

EHOs of the local authority police the regulations. They have power to enter all relevant premises to detect offences and frequently arrive unannounced.

If premises are found to be an imminent risk to health, they may be closed on the issue of an emergency prohibition notice. This could mean the end of your livelihood.

Swingeing fines and/or imprisonment can be imposed on conviction for each of the most serious offences.

Regulations are quite rightly being tightened all the time. The result of compliance is safer food for your guests and freedom from actions against you, which might include civil claims for the effects of food poisoning.

For the first time ever; all hotel-type premises with four or more letting bedrooms and the vast majority with fewer, now have to be registered with the local authority. If starting from scratch, four weeks’ notice needs to be given before opening so that an enforcement officer can visit and advise on hygiene.

Various booklets, including Food safety regulations, Food hygiene: a guide for businesses, Preventing food poisoning, A guide to food hazards and your business, and Starting Up: Your first steps to running a catering business, can be obtained, free of charge, from the Food Standards Agency, tel: (0845) 606 0667, web: www.food.gov.uk. . Contact details for those outside England also appear on this website. In addition, booklets are obtainable from your local Environmental Health Department. Some EHOs issue notes for guidance to hoteliers.

It would be unwise to commit yourself to buying a hotel where much work needs to be done to bring it up to food safety standards, without accounting for such work in the price you are prepared to pay.