The West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Planning and Safety Command is responsible for the enforcement of fire safety legislation and the implementation of community fire safety programmes. Managed by the head of Planning and Safety, the command consists of a headquarters at Chichester and four local offices, all staffed by teams of uniformed and non-uniformed personnel.

Staff at headquarters deal with administrative and policy matters, the issuing of fire and safety certificates and the production of technical guidance. Also based at Chichester, from where it delivers a range of educational services to the county and organises community fire safety campaigns, is the Community Fire Safety Team.

The Operational Demand Management Officer is also based at Chichester and is responsible for delivering the brigade's operational demand management strategy.

This strategy is based on the three R's of reducing impact, reversing trends and reviewing success.

Staff at the four local offices, in Bognor Regis, Worthing, Horsham and Haywards Heath , provide fire safety advice to businesses and the public, inspect and reinspect qualifying premises and produce their fire certificates and subsequent revisions, undertake fire investigations and act as consultants to local authorities on fire safety issues.

Following recommendations in the Government’s ‘Safe as Houses’ report, which highlighted the need to use data from fire reports more effectively, identify fire trends and develop fire reduction strategies, work has been undertaken, primarily by the Community Fire Safety Section, to enhance collaborative activities with other agencies.

The Community Fire Safety Section, the Operational Demand Management Officer and Fire Investigation Officers work closely together to identify trends and develop strategies to reduce fires. Skills and knowledge overlap, particularly in respect of statistical information and data analysis and the Command also works closely with the brigade's statistical section to develop data collection systems.

In relation to the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations, the Command has also developed policies to ensure the enforcement process is uniformly and impartially implemented across the county. The Regulations make employers responsible for their premises' fire safety standards and the WSFRS is responsible for enforcement.

Fire Safety Advice can be obtained from any of the four fire safety centres, or the Services Community Fire Safety Team on . A wide range of information is also available elsewhere on this site.

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