Court upholds retailer’s £400,000 fire breach fine

High street retailer New Look’s appeal against its record £400,000 fine for fire safety breaches at its Oxford Street store has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

In November 2009, London Fire Brigade prosecuted New Look following a serious fire at its Oxford Street store on 26 April 2007. Thirty fire engines and around 150 firefighters were needed to tackle the blaze and crews remained at the scene for the next three days. The first call to the Brigade was from an office worker in an adjacent building. This delay meant that when crews arrived the fire had already developed and had broken through the second floor windows. Despite the building’s fire alarm sounding, it was reset on at least one occasion.

Over 450 people evacuated from the store and surrounding premises. A significant amount of Oxford Street was closed to traffic and the public, which resulted in businesses being closed for a further two days after the blaze. The cause of the fire was never ascertained.

The retailer was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay £136,052 in costs after pleading guilty to serious breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the RRO), the largest fine to date under the RRO.

In the appeal, New Look argued that HHJ Rivlin, the sentencing judge, had not given sufficient weight to the fact that neither individually nor cumulatively were the breaches of duty linked to the cause of fire, nor did the fire cause injury or death. It was submitted that the sentencing judge had applied a higher presumed standard of seriousness to breaches of fire safety responsibilities than he would for breaches of duty towards employees and visitors under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. These submissions were not accepted.

The Court of Appeal agreed with the sentencing judge that a court does not have to wait until death or serious injury has occurred to express its displeasure at breaches of responsibilities under the Order. 

The decision on the appeal states:

“We share the judge's view that the appellant's performance of its fire safety duties in a large department store in the centre of London was lamentable. The fines were, we recognise, severe, but they were not in our judgment manifestly excessive.”

Councillor Brian Coleman AM FRSA, Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, said:

”I agree with the judge's view that New Look’s performance on fire safety at their Oxford Street store was lamentable. Businesses like New Look are legally responsible for ensuring that their customers and employees are safe from fire.

“We welcome the guidance given in today’s judgement and it is clear that the courts do not have to see a death or serious injury to hit a company with a substantial fine.” 

In a statement issued after the judgement, a spokesperson for New Look said:

"New Look is committed to putting the health and safety of customers and employees first. Although the appeal against the fine was unsuccessful, we note that the original 35 alleged breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) were reduced to two offences and at no time has it been alleged that the company was either responsible for the fire, or that its breaches of the RRFSO caused the fire."