Warwickshire County Council

Guidance on fire safety for ceremonies held under The

Marriage Act 1949 and Civil Partnership Act 2004.

Guidance
This guidance is only to be used for determining suitability of premises prior to
grant of approval and renewal under the Marriage Act 1994 and Civil
Partnership Act 2004. It is specific to the suitability of premises and associated
occupancy figures for ceremonies under this Act and takes account of close
seating arrangements and space requirements for ceremony officials.

This guidance has been prepared in consultation with the Local Authority
licensing officials with their requirements in mind.

An example of an assessed layout for a ceremony is included in Appendix 1. A

similar illustrative assessment should be included in any application for approval
or renewal under the Marriage Act and Civil Partnership Act 2004 to assist in
demonstrating the suitability of the venue and seating layout.

General Occupancy Factors

The maximum safe occupancy capacity depends on a number of factors, these
include:

the total available floor area and its use;

the number of available exit doors;
the actual distance people need to travel to reach the nearest exit door;
the width of doors and escape routes;
the method of opening doors and the direction in which they open; and
the number of persons likely to use each door

Occupancy Figures
All occupancy figures for ceremonies should be assessed on the basis of a
theatre style seated audience and discounting a minimum space 3m deep for
rooms normally along the width of the room, for use by the ceremony officials,
marriage desk , readers, musicians, videographers, photographers etc.
Additional space should also be accounted for if additional fixtures are to be
included such as pianos, floral displays etc. If however rooms are small the
minimum space required may be changed subject to the agreed with the
Registration Service Officials at the normal pre-approval or renewal visit.

A central aisle(s)/gangway(s) should be provided giving access to the seating

area(s), which should be suitably sized for the overall seating plan taking into
account and should 1.2m to account for use both by disabled persons and the
couple but the absolute minimum width should be no less than 1.05m.

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There should be no projection into the gangway(s) which would diminish its
clear width and the ends of all rows and seats should be aligned to maintain a
uniformed width of gangway throughout its length.

Given audiences will be seated, then the occupancy can be assessed by

determining the number of seats available at the specific venue that will safely
fit in the space, leaving the central gangway and ceremony space as detailed
above. Furniture provided within the building/rooms to be used for ceremonies
(specifically chairs) can vary in size; therefore the use of larger sized chairs can
be a deciding factor that dictates on the number of persons who may be
present.

Seating Layout
Seating and gangways should be so arranged to allow free and ready access
direct to the exit(s). Audiences seated in rows will first have to make their way
to the end of the row before being able to use the escape route(s) provided.
However, in general, no seat should be more than 7 seats away from a
gangway/exit route unless the distance between rows of seats, the seatway, is
increased in accordance with the table below. Seating and gangways should
therefore be so arranged to allow free and ready access direct to the exit(s).
Standing and sitting in gangways, or in front of any exit, should not be
permitted.

Seatways (defined as the clear distance between the back of a seat and the
front of the seat directly behind it) provide the initial parts of escape routes and
hence need to be of sufficient width to enable all persons in a row easy
movement towards the gangway(s). Seatway widths should be not less than
300 mm and should be constant throughout the length of the row of the seats.

National guidance states that seating for more than 50 persons should be
secured together in lengths of no fewer than 4 seats and no more than 14
seats. If seating is provided for more than 250 persons, the rows of seating
flanking the front, the back, the cross gangways and the seats near the exits
should be fixed to the floor. If, however, all of the seats in the row are fixed
together, only the end seats of the row need to be fixed to the floor. Where
seats are fixed together, it should not be possible to separate them, nor for a
row of chairs to snake, merely by pushing one or more seats in the row. We
are aware that due to room constraints it may not always be possible to fix
chairs to the floor however seats should be tied/fixed together based on the
above.

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Measurement of seatway for various seat styles

Note: Above tables reproduced from BS9999, formerly within BS5588 part 6
and referred to in the CLG fire safety risk assessment guide for small and
medium places of assembly.

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Exit Requirements
Determine the number of exits required and width of those exits for the
calculated safe occupant capacity, as follows:

1) For audiences of less than 60 persons a single fire exit from the room
with a minimum width of 750mm will be acceptable (subject to any
additional width required for disabled persons).
2) For audiences of more than 60 persons and up to 100 persons two exits
will be required (minimum width of each exit being 750mm) with the
doors opening in the direction of travel.
3) For audiences of more than 100 and up to 200 persons two exits will be
required (minimum width of each exit being 1050mm) with the doors
opening in the direction of travel.
4) For audiences of over 200 persons, and up to 600, two exits will be
required (minimum width of each exit being 1050mm) with 75mm added
for each additional 15 persons or part thereof over 200, again with the
doors opening in the direction of travel.

The width of a final exit should be not less than that of the escape route leading
to it. If disabled persons sit in their wheelchairs as part of the audience, the
wheelchairs should be placed in a position where they will not obstruct other
people in an emergency and where a ready means of exit is available. Where a
disabled person leaves their wheelchair to occupy a seat, the wheelchair should
be left readily available but where it will not cause an obstruction to an exit
route.

Travel distances
Where there is only one exit available from a room or storey no person should
have to walk more than 15m to reach it. Where there are two exits available but
there is a portion of the licensed area from which one exit has to be passed to
reach the alternative, no person should have to walk more than 15m to reach
the nearest exit.

Where there are two or more exits they should be sited far enough apart to
ensure that if one is unavailable due to fire the other remains available.
Generally speaking this means that where there are two exits they should be
situated at each end of the licensed area and where there are three exits they
should be situated one at each end and one in the middle.

Where more than one route is provided in the seating area then the suggested
range of travel is 32m to the nearest final exit or storey exit. The limitations on
travel distance control the maximum spacing of exits but the actual seating
layout might call for some adjustment of gangways so that they are conveniently
sited for the exits.

Routes and exit spacing should take into account the provision made for
wheelchair spaces and the numbers of wheelchair users and ambulant disabled
people likely to be present in the building (see also BS 8300).

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Appendix 1

This is a template which shows capacity determined by the new assessment

using actual chairs to be used plus the couple and officials. In this case it has
lead to a greater capacity than the generic 1.0m 2/person calculation. An
acceptable seatway has been provided for the number of seats, exit routes are
sufficient and number/width of exits is adequate. The capacity should be
assessed against the means of escape provision for the rest of the building.

Please ensure that if you use partitions to divide rooms seating plans are
submitted for all the options. For example a room which can be divided by one
partition will need 3 separate plans, one for each divided part and a whole
room.

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 Warwickshire Room
Ceremony capacity 200.
Seatway 380mm
Chair depth 0.6m, width 0.5m
Gangway 2m
Seating secured together in rows of 10.

12m

Fire Exit
(1050mm) 1.5m min clear for
exit route

9 rows of 10 10 rows of 10
seats each seats each
+1 row of 5

10 x 0.6 +
Seats 0.5m (W) by Seats 0.5m (W) by 10 x 0.38 =
0.6m (D) 0.6m (D) 9.8m

Seatway of 380mm Seatway of 380mm

2m
15m Gangway
95 people 100 people

10 x 0.5m =5m 10 x 0.5m = 5m

3m minimum space for officials/ceremony

table and to include ceremony partners,
musicians, photographers, readers.

Entrance (1050mm)
leading to 1.5m corridor.

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