A prohibition notice under Article 31 of the Fire Safety Order restricts or prohibits use of premises with immediate effect, unlike an enforcement notice which allows a compliance period. Fire and rescue authorities in England issued 1,224 prohibition notices in the year ending March 2026, a rise of 27%. The appeal window is 21 days and appealing does not suspend the notice.
You have received a fire prohibition notice: what happens next
A prohibition notice under Article 31 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 restricts or prohibits the use of premises with immediate effect, or from a date the notice specifies. It is not an enforcement notice and it does not give you a compliance period. The statutory appeal period is 21 days, and lodging an appeal does not suspend the notice, so the restriction stays in force while the appeal is heard. The only route to reopening is remedying the specified matters and satisfying the authority that you have done so.
Fire and rescue authorities in England issued 1,224 prohibition notices in the year ending March 2026, an increase of 27% on the 965 issued the previous year and an increase of 55% over six years.
Prohibition notice or enforcement notice: they are not the same thing
Read the top of the notice and identify which instrument you are holding before you do anything else. Operators lose days working to the wrong timescale.
| Enforcement notice, Article 30 | Prohibition notice, Article 31 | Alteration notice, Article 29 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trigger | The authority is of the opinion that the responsible person has failed to comply with a provision of the Order | The authority is of the opinion that use of the premises involves or will involve a risk to relevant persons so serious that use ought to be prohibited or restricted | The authority is of the opinion that the premises constitute a serious risk, or may do so if a change is made |
| Effect on trading | You continue to operate while you comply | Use is prohibited or restricted immediately or from a specified date | No immediate restriction. You must notify the authority before changes |
| Compliance period | The notice specifies a period | None. The restriction applies at once | Ongoing obligation |
| Issued in England, year ending March 2026 | 1,896 | 1,224 | 202 |
| One-year change | Up 6.9% | Up 27% | Down 20% |
Prohibition notices rose 27% in one year while alteration notices fell 20%. Fire and rescue authorities are using the instrument with immediate commercial consequences more often.
If you are holding an enforcement notice rather than a prohibition notice, work from the 28 day path after a fire safety enforcement notice instead.
The first 24 hours
- Read the schedule, not the covering letter. The notice specifies exactly what is prohibited or restricted and exactly which matters must be remedied. The restriction may cover a floor, a wing, a room, sleeping use only, or the whole building. Establish the precise boundary before you make any operational decision.
- Comply with the restriction immediately. Failure to comply with a prohibition notice is an offence under the Order. Do not trade in the restricted part while you take advice.
- Record the date and time you received it. The 21 day appeal window runs from service.
- Tell your insurer. A restriction on the use of insured premises is almost always a notifiable circumstance. Check the policy wording rather than assuming.
- Identify the named officer. The notice will identify the inspecting officer or the protection team. That person decides what evidence satisfies them, so their view of sufficiency is the one that matters.
- Do not commission work before you have read the schedule properly. Operators frequently buy the wrong remediation in the first 48 hours because they acted on the headline rather than the specified matters.
What actually gets a prohibition notice lifted
There is no automatic expiry. The notice stays in force until the authority withdraws it, which happens when the authority is satisfied that the specified matters have been remedied. That means the work must be done and the evidence must be presented in a form the officer accepts.
| Stage | What the authority is looking for |
|---|---|
| 1. Interpret the schedule | A written scope of works that maps each specified matter to a defined remedy, so nothing in the schedule is left unanswered |
| 2. Appoint competent specialists | Evidence of third-party accreditation appropriate to the work, current insurance, and relevant experience of the premises type |
| 3. Carry out the work | Dated completion records, photographs before and after, and product certification for anything installed |
| 4. Produce commissioning evidence | Commissioning certificates for detection, alarm, emergency lighting or suppression work, referenced to the applicable British Standard |
| 5. Update the fire risk assessment | A revised assessment by a competent person reflecting the remedied condition, with a date |
| 6. Update the Article 11 arrangements | Evidence that the management arrangements which allowed the condition to arise have changed, not only that the hardware has been replaced |
| 7. Request re-inspection | A single submission pack rather than a series of emails, so the officer can close the matter in one visit |
Step 6 is where operators most often lose weeks. The authority served the notice because it concluded there was a serious risk, and replacing hardware without changing the management arrangements invites the same finding again. Article 11 of the Order requires arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures. Fire and rescue authorities in England recorded 5,240 Article 11 breaches during audits in the year ending March 2026, up 25% in a single year.
The appeal, and why it rarely helps commercially
The statutory appeal period is 21 days from service, and the appeal is made to a magistrates' court. Lodging an appeal does not suspend a prohibition notice. The restriction remains in force while the appeal is heard.
That combination means an appeal is worth considering when the notice is factually wrong or its scope is disproportionate, and it is rarely the right first move when the underlying condition is real. The commercially rational sequence in most cases is to remedy first, get the restriction lifted, and take the point about scope separately if it still matters.
Note also that notices appear on the national public register three weeks after issue in order to allow for the appeal process, and that where an appeal succeeds and the notice is overturned, no entry is made.
What it costs, and where the cost actually falls
TICDesk does not publish invented figures. What can be stated is where the money goes, and the remediation contract is usually not the largest number.
- Lost revenue while the restriction stands. For a hotel this is room nights. For a care home it is bed occupancy and the cost of alternative placements. For a multi-tenant office it is service charge exposure and potential tenant claims. This is normally the dominant cost and it accrues daily.
- Remediation works. Variable and dependent entirely on the schedule.
- Fire risk assessment and specialist reports. Required to evidence the remedied condition. See our fire risk assessment cost guide for the variables that move that number.
- Premium procurement. Work bought under a live restriction is bought without leverage, and this is the single largest avoidable cost in the whole sequence.
Because item one accrues daily, the correct optimisation is speed of closure rather than lowest unit price. Buying the cheapest quote and then requoting the scope twice is the most expensive way to handle a prohibition notice.
Getting the procurement right under time pressure
The temptation is to appoint whoever answers the phone. That is how operators end up with work that the inspecting officer will not accept, which restarts the clock.
Check the following before appointing anybody:
- Third-party accreditation appropriate to the specified matters, verified on the scheme's own register rather than taken from a logo on a website.
- Current public liability and professional indemnity cover at a level appropriate to the premises.
- Documented experience of the premises type, because a specialist who has never worked in an occupied care home will not plan the work around residents.
- Willingness to provide commissioning certification referenced to the applicable standard.
- Capacity to start on a stated date, in writing.
Our contractor vetting and accreditation guide sets out what each accreditation actually proves, and what to check before appointing a fire safety specialist covers competence specifically.
If the specified matters cross service lines, which is common where a notice cites detection, emergency lighting and compartmentation together, see passive fire protection surveys and emergency lighting testing frequency under BS 5266.
How this fits the wider enforcement picture
Prohibition notices are rising while prosecutions fall. Fire and rescue authorities in England brought 33 prosecutions in the year ending March 2026, down from 35 the previous year and down 37% over six years, while formal enforcement action rose 46% over the same six years. The detail is in our analysis of the 2026 fire safety enforcement statistics.
Frequently asked
How long do I have to comply with a prohibition notice?
A prohibition notice takes effect immediately, or from a date specified in the notice. There is no compliance period of the kind an enforcement notice carries. The restriction stays in force until the fire and rescue authority withdraws it, which happens once the authority is satisfied the specified matters have been remedied. The 21 day period on the notice is the appeal window, not a period to comply.
Can I keep trading after a prohibition notice?
Only in the parts of the premises the notice does not restrict. Read the schedule to establish the exact boundary, because a notice may prohibit sleeping use only, a single floor, or the whole building. Failure to comply with a prohibition notice is an offence under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, so trading in a restricted area is not an option.
Does appealing suspend a fire prohibition notice?
No. Lodging an appeal does not suspend a prohibition notice, so the restriction remains in force while the appeal is heard by the magistrates' court. That is the practical reason most operators remedy the specified matters first and take any point about the scope of the notice separately, because appealing alone does not let you reopen.
How many prohibition notices are issued each year in England?
Fire and rescue authorities in England issued 1,224 prohibition notices in the year ending March 2026. That was an increase of 27% on the 965 issued in the year ending March 2025 and an increase of 55% on the 788 issued six years earlier. Prohibition notices made up 1,224 of the 3,355 formal notifications issued in the latest year.
Will a prohibition notice appear on a public register?
Yes. Notices served under the Fire Safety Order are recorded on a public register maintained under the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988, hosted nationally by the National Fire Chiefs Council. Notices appear three weeks after issue to allow for the appeal process and remain for three years unless still in force, deemed not complied with, or withdrawn. Where an appeal succeeds, no entry is made.
Who lifts a prohibition notice?
The fire and rescue authority that served it. There is no automatic expiry and no third party can withdraw it. The authority withdraws the notice once satisfied that the matters specified in it have been remedied, which in practice means the inspecting officer accepting the evidence pack you submit and, usually, carrying out a re-inspection.
Do I need to tell my insurer about a prohibition notice?
Almost certainly. A restriction on the use of insured premises is normally a notifiable circumstance under a commercial property or business interruption policy, and non-disclosure can affect cover. Check the specific policy wording rather than assuming either way, and notify in writing so there is a record of the date.
Sources & further reading
