The Executive Council has completed discussion of the bill on the Legal Regime for Fire Safety in Buildings and Venues, which will be submitted to the Legislative Council for scrutiny.

The main contents of the Act include:

I. Expand the scope of application. In addition to general buildings, the Act also applies to specific premises.

2. Redefine the functions and powers. The Bill adds supervisory powers to the Fire Department and empowers it to punish, addressing the lack of statutory powers in the past.

3. Measures to introduce a "duty of self-protection". The owner of the building or site is responsible for maintaining fire safety conditions and has corresponding obligations, such as ensuring that qualified enterprises are contracted to provide inspection, maintenance and repair services for fire safety systems.

4, Fill the loopholes in the fire safety technical specifications and special provisions for performance-based design. The public authorities may refer to the international or national recommendations and standard rules to close the loopholes in the technical code of fire safety in Macao when examining and approving the permit application or plan. In addition, performance-based design is permitted based on the particularity of the building or site.

5. Approval procedures for professional programs. The Bill proposes to allow the FSD to make use of the professional advice of a qualified third party entity in vetting the fire safety professional plan, so as to ensure more rigorous and complete vetting of more complex situations.

VI. Formulate a fire safety qualification system. Specifically regulate the registration and liability system of technicians and qualified enterprises for carrying out inspection, maintenance and repair of fire safety systems, and are supervised by the Fire Services Department.

VII. Strengthen preventive and legal supervision measures. The Secretary for Land, Works and Transport and the Director of Fire Services may take appropriate preventive and supervisory measures, such as prohibiting works in breach of the law and seizing items stored illegally.

Eight, Improve the punishment system. The new criminal liability is to create an offence of contravention, which divides administrative offences into three levels: very serious, serious and minor. Offenders can be fined from Patacas 2,000 to Patacas 200,000, or up to Patacas 800,000 if they are legal persons.

------ From Macau Daily News November 06, 2020