Emergency lighting test log book for small UK venues

If you run a pub, café, village hall, church, gym or salon, emergency lighting is easy to forget until a fitting is out or someone asks to see the record. An emergency lighting test log book is that record: what you tested, when, who did it, and what happened if a light failed.

You do not need a compliance department. You do need a log your staff or volunteers will use, and that you can find later. If paper has already slipped, Muster is a digital fire safety log book that builds a check schedule from what is in your building, including emergency lighting, and reminds you before a test is overdue.

What the law actually asks you to do

In England and Wales the responsible person must keep the premises and the fire safety equipment, including emergency lighting, subject to a suitable system of maintenance, and in efficient working order. That is article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. GOV.UK says the same in plain language: you must maintain emergency lighting along with detection, warning systems and fire-fighting equipment.

You must record the significant findings of your fire risk assessment if you employ five or more people, the premises are licensed, or an alterations notice is in force. The Home Office small and medium places of assembly guide sets that out. GOV.UK workplace fire safety says you must keep a written record of your fire risk assessment. Keeping test and maintenance records is good practice and supports the duty to maintain equipment.

How often you test is not a single line in the Order. It comes from your fire risk assessment. The Home Office guides for offices and shops and small and medium places of assembly treat emergency lighting as part of keeping escape routes usable, and they expect a suitable system of testing and recording. Many small venues work to a short monthly function test and a longer annual duration test, because that is what their assessment says. If you are not sure, do not guess: read the assessment or ask a competent person.

If your venue is in Scotland or Northern Ireland, different fire safety law applies: the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire and Rescue Services (NI) Order 2006. Check local guidance.

This is guidance, not legal advice for your premises.

What a useful emergency lighting test log should capture

Format matters less than whether the page answers the questions a fire officer, licensing officer or insurer usually asks:

• Date and time of the test
• What was tested (a named circuit, a zone, or a full walk-round of the fittings you have)
• Whether it was a monthly function test or the annual duration test
• The name of the person who did it
• The result: pass, fault, or fittings that did not come on
• What you did next, and when the fault was cleared
• A contractor visit and certificate, if a specialist did the annual test

A line that only says “checked, OK” with no name and no date is hard to stand behind later. A log that follows a failed fitting through to the repair is more use than one that stops at the fault.

Keep the emergency lighting test log with your other fire records: alarm tests, extinguishers, drills and the fire risk assessment. People who inspect rarely ask for lighting in isolation.

Paper, a free printable template, or digital

You will usually be choosing between three options.

A bound paper fire log book. Plenty of venues already have one behind the bar or in the hall kitchen. It is familiar, needs no login, and works if someone writes in it after the test. It struggles when staff change, the book is not where the lights are, or last year’s book cannot be found.

A free printable emergency lighting test log template, often offered as a PDF free download. A free template is better than a blank notebook. You print a sheet, fill it in, and file it. That costs nothing, which matters to a hall treasurer. The weakness is the same as any paper system: someone has to remember the month, find a working printer, and put the sheet back in the right folder. Rotas and shift work make that harder. If you use a free printable emergency lighting test log, print a year’s worth, keep the stack where the test is done, and name who owns the job.

A digital fire safety log book. This is the same emergency lighting test log, kept so each test sits with your other fire checks. The point is not a complicated system. It is a reminder before a test is due, a name and time on each entry, and a pack you can print when someone asks to see the records.

None of these, on their own, make a premises “compliant”. The work is still the test, the repair, and following your fire risk assessment.

What to look for when you choose

Use this as a short checklist, whether you stay on paper or move.

1. It matches your building. A generic PDF written for a warehouse will annoy you. You want space for the fittings you actually have, and for both the monthly walk-round and the annual test.
2. The person doing the test can record it on the day. If only one person knows where the template lives, you will get gaps. Volunteers on a rota and bar staff on shifts need an obvious place to write the result.
3. Faults do not vanish. A useful log tracks a failed light from report to fix, and keeps contractor certificates with the annual test.
4. You can still find last year. Inspectors often want history, not only this month. Paper needs a filing habit. Digital needs an export you control.
5. Someone or something reminds you. The legal duty is to maintain the lights, not to remember the calendar. A phone alarm can work. A log that reminds you is easier.
6. It sits with the rest of the fire records. Emergency lighting is one check among several. A separate spreadsheet that nobody opens is how records drift.

How the options compare

	Paper log book	Free printable PDF	Digital fire log
Date and name on each test	If it is written in	If it is written in	On each entry
Monthly and annual tests	You add the rows	You add the rows	Schedule from your building
Reminders	You set them	You set them	Built in
Faults through to repair	Extra pages	Extra pages	Tracked
History after a manager or committee change	If you can find the book	If you can find the folder	Stays in the account
Cost	One-off book	Free	Subscription after a trial

A free printable emergency lighting test log is a fair starting point if you will print it, fill it and file it every month without fail. If that has already slipped, changing the template will not fix it.

Where Muster fits

Muster is a digital fire safety log book for small UK venues, with QR tap-to-log for weekly alarm tests and a check schedule that includes emergency lighting. You set out what is in the building. It works out what is due and reminds you before anything is overdue. It also tracks faults, contractor visits and certificates, drills and staff training, and prints an inspection pack with the records officers usually ask to see.

Staff do not need an app or their own logins to log the weekly alarm test: they scan a QR sticker, enter the venue PIN and tap OK. Emergency lighting stays on the same schedule as the rest of the fire checks, so you are not running a separate lighting spreadsheet.

There is a 14-day free trial (card at checkout, nothing taken for 14 days). After that, Venue is £12 a month or £120 a year.

Cancel any time. If a plan or trial ends, records are not deleted: you can still view and export them. Muster is sold to businesses and organisations only, including charities, churches, halls and clubs.

If a judgement call is needed about what to test in your building, that still sits with your fire risk assessment or a competent professional. The log is not a substitute for either.

A practical way to decide

Ask yourself three questions:

• Will the person who walks the emergency lights today know where to write it down?
• If they find a dead fitting, will you still have that note in six months?
• When someone asks, can you show alarm tests, lighting tests, drills and certificates without emptying a drawer?

If the answer is already yes, keep your paper book or your printable log and stay consistent. If the answer is “sometimes”, a digital log that reminds you is the more reliable option, not a harsher one.

Open the fire safety log book when you are ready to set up your venue. You can look around on the 14-day free trial before you pay.