Fire risk assessments under the Fire Safety Order
Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment of your premises. We carry them out, write them in plain English, and put the actions on a plan you can actually complete.
An assessment you can act on, not a hundred pages of boilerplate
A useful fire risk assessment identifies who is at risk, how fire could start and spread in your specific building, and whether your current measures, detection, alarm, escape routes, lighting, extinguishers, training, are adequate. Ours follow the PAS 79 methodology and end with a prioritised action plan: what is urgent, what is planned, what is advisory, each with a plain-English reason.
Because we also maintain the systems the assessment examines, findings translate directly into fixed prices for the work rather than a vague recommendation to "engage a competent contractor". If you would rather price the remedials elsewhere, the assessment stands alone and says so.
Assessments are reviewed on a defined cycle, and sooner if the building changes use, layout or occupancy. On a Total Care contract the review programme is built in, so the document never quietly goes out of date.
What's included
- Suitable and sufficient assessments under Article 9 of the Fire Safety Order
- PAS 79 methodology, written in plain English
- Prioritised action plan: urgent, planned, advisory
- Fixed prices for remedials, or a standalone document if you prefer
- Defined review cycle with reminders before it lapses
- Stored in your client portal alongside certificates
Every visit ends with certificates issued and logbook entries made before the engineer leaves site.
Who is the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order?
In a workplace it is usually the employer; in other premises it is whoever has control, typically the owner, landlord or managing agent.
The responsible person can delegate tasks but not the duty itself. Where control is shared, a managed office building for example, each party holds the duty for the parts they control, which is exactly the situation a good assessment untangles.
How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed?
There is no fixed statutory interval; review it regularly and whenever the building or its use changes materially. Annual review is common good practice.
Enforcement officers expect to see a live document. A five-year-old assessment for a building that has since changed tenants will not protect you. We set the review date at handover and remind you before it arrives.
Can I do the fire risk assessment myself?
Legally yes, if you are competent. For anything beyond a small, simple, low-risk premises, most duty holders should not.
Post-Grenfell legislation tightened expectations of assessor competence. If the premises has sleeping risk, complex escape routes or vulnerable occupants, use a competent assessor and keep the evidence of their competence with the document.
Better bundled: this service costs less and works harder inside a planned maintenance contract covering alarm, lighting, extinguishers and risk assessment together.
Get a contract priceFire risk assessment questions
Who is legally responsible for the fire risk assessment?
The responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. In a workplace that is the employer; in other non-domestic premises it is whoever has control, usually the owner, landlord or managing agent. You can appoint someone to carry out the assessment, but the legal duty cannot be contracted away.
How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed?
Regularly, and always after a material change: a layout alteration, a change of use, new occupants, a fire or near miss, or a change in the number of people present. Most premises settle on an annual review, with a full reassessment when something significant changes.
What makes a fire risk assessment suitable and sufficient?
It identifies the hazards and the people at risk, evaluates and reduces the risk, and produces a dated action plan with named owners and target dates. An assessment that lists observations but never closes them out is the version enforcement officers see most often, and it is the version that fails.
What if the assessment raises actions we cannot afford at once?
You programme them. Enforcement officers look for a prioritised plan with dates being worked to, not a blank cheque. We price the actions, sequence the ones that reduce risk fastest first, and put the rest on a schedule you can evidence.
Would rather we called you?
Leave a number and a name. An engineer calls you back the same working day, and you can have the whole conversation in five minutes.