Singapore legislation
Section 41
Section 41
Duties and responsibilities of fire safety engineers
(1)
Subject to the provisions of this Act, a person must not prepare or propose, or hold out or advertise in any way that the person is willing to prepare or propose, plans for any fire safety works using any alternative solution to satisfy any fire performance requirements unless the person is —
an appropriate qualified person who is also a fire safety engineer; or
a qualified person preparing or proposing the alternative solution under the direct supervision of a fire safety engineer.
(2)
Subject to the provisions of this Act, a person who is not a fire safety engineer must not act as a peer reviewer.
(3)
Where a fire safety engineer prepares or proposes, or supervises the preparation or proposal of, any plan for fire safety works using any alternative solution to satisfy any fire performance requirements, he or she must take all reasonable steps and exercise due diligence to ensure that the alternative solution satisfies those fire performance requirements.
(4)
Where a fire safety engineer is appointed as a peer reviewer to review and assess whether any alternative solution satisfies any fire performance requirements, the peer reviewer must not issue any certification under section 55(5)(a)(iii) unless he or she has taken all reasonable steps and exercised due diligence to ensure that the alternative solution in respect of which his or her certification is being sought satisfies those fire performance requirements.
(5)
Subject to the provisions of this Act, a peer reviewer must not, at any time when reviewing and assessing whether any alternative solution used in any plan for any fire safety works satisfies any fire performance requirements, have any professional or financial interest in —
the fire safety works or the building works in respect of which his or her duties and responsibilities as peer reviewer are to be carried out; or
the building or relevant pipeline, or any part thereof, to which the fire safety works relate.
(6)
A peer reviewer is regarded as having a professional or financial interest in any fire safety works or building works, or in any building or relevant pipeline, or any part thereof, if —
the peer reviewer is or has been responsible for, or is acting as the consultant for, the design or construction of the building or relevant pipeline or any of the fire safety works in any capacity;
the peer reviewer, or any nominee of the peer reviewer, is a member, officer or employee of a company or other body which has a professional or financial interest in the building or relevant pipeline, or any part thereof, or in the building works or fire safety works; or
the peer reviewer is a partner or is in the employment of a person who has a professional or financial interest in the building or relevant pipeline, or any part thereof, or in the building works or fire safety works.
(7)
For the purposes of this section —
a person is regarded as having a professional or financial interest in the building or relevant pipeline, or any part thereof, or in any building works or fire safety works, even if the person has that interest only as a trustee for the benefit of some other person; and
in the case of a husband and wife living together, the interest of one spouse is, if known to the other, deemed to be also an interest of the other.
(8)
To avoid doubt —
involvement in the fire safety works as a peer reviewer; and
entitlement to any fee paid for acting as a peer reviewer,are not regarded as constituting a professional or financial interest.
(9)
Any person who contravenes subsection (1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence.
(10)
Any fire safety engineer who contravenes subsection (3), (4) or (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.[22A