How Often Do You Need A Fire Risk Assessment In The UK?

Fire risk assessment is a compulsory duty of the business owners or the property managers. They are legally required to ensure the safety of their employees and occupants against all possible risks of a fire incident.

Fire is a serious occurrence. It has quite a damaging impact on the businesses and commercial activities. It can also seriously threaten the residential blocks of multi-occupational high-rise buildings. It has resulted in huge financial losses to businesses in recent years, apart from the deaths of many people. The severity of the fire threats in workplaces has resulted in the formulation of various rules and regulations aimed at the safety of premises and occupants against possible fire incidents. One of the main requirements of these regulations is to conduct a "Fire Risk Assessment" regularly on the premises where a business operates.

The Relevant Law on Fire Safety

The safety of workplaces has remained a serious concern for the authorities in the UK, resulting in the formulation of various laws and regulations. "Fire Precautions Act 1971" and "Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999” have been in force in the past. However, “The Regulatory Reforms (Fire Safety) Order 2005”, implemented on the 1st of October 2006, is the latest regulation, still in practice.

The Regulatory Reforms (Fire Safety) Order 2005, commonly called Fire Safety Order 2005, binds all commercial properties to be surveyed for fire risk assessment. The public places of a residential building also come under the ambit of this order. A competent person is required to do the fire risk assessment. However, the order does not define the qualification or competency level of the competent person. This might be because the workplaces are quite diverse in nature and size, which may require different levels of expertise to conduct a fire risk assessment.

New Regulations Added in Fire Safety Order 2005

Under the provisions of article 24 of The Fire Safety Order 2005, a new regulation, “Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022," was introduced, which has been in force since January 2023. This regulation mainly deals with the role and responsibilities of the "responsible person" for conducting fire risk assessment in high-rise residential buildings comprising blocks of flats.

A responsible person under this law can be the owner of the premises, a business owner, or any person nominated by them to conduct a fire risk assessment. The law binds the responsible person to provide the required information to the "Fire and Rescue Services" (FRSs) so that they may plan safety measures for high-rise buildings. Additionally, the FRSs may also provide recommendations to improve the operational response if they feel necessary.  

The responsible person is legally required to pass on the relevant information to the Fire and Rescue Services regarding the following:

1. Building plans.
2. External wall system.
3. All firefighting gadgets are installed in the building.
4. Lifts and elevators.
5. Information box containing name and contact information of the responsible person, along with copies of building plans.
6. Way-finding signage with floor numbers should be prominently visible, even in murky conditions. 

They are also required by law to provide the following information to the occupants of the high-rise building:

• Fire safety instructions on how to report a fire incident and how to react once the fire has occurred, especially how to exit the building
• Provide complete information to the occupants about the fire exit doors and how to use them.

Important Things to Remember

Here are some important things to remember:

• The owners, employers, landlords, building managers, and any other person assigned to the property's duties will be called the “responsible person.”
• The responsible person is responsible for maintaining the building up to the desired fire safety standards.
• He will ensure that the employees working on the premises are adequately trained for fire safety. The employees should be given general training against fire risks. Additionally, periodical refresher training sessions should also be conducted, especially when major changes are made in the business's operations.
• The responsible person is legally responsible for inspecting the property for Fire Risk Assessment and reviewing it regularly.

Basics Of A Fire Risk Assessment

Under the provisions of the fire safety order, the responsible person must get the property assessed regularly for fire risk to identify the fire risks and fire hazards. Fire risk assessment is a careful survey of the entire building to ascertain what can harm the occupants and how it can be prevented. A fire risk assessment would essentially include the following:

• To identify the fire hazards and where they exist on the premises.
• Identify which employees are at risk and how their safety can be ensured against fire risk.
• To evaluate how the risks can be minimized or completely removed.
• Record the findings and recommendations by documenting them in paper form or digitally saving them.
• To suggest an emergency exit plan and make it workable.
• To impart necessary training to the employees on how to react in a fire incident.

How Often A Fire Risk Assessment Is Required In The UK?

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 does not specify the time frame for conducting a fire risk assessment. There's no definite period in the law when you must conduct a fire risk assessment in your workplace. However, section 9(3) of the law provides a guideline as under:

• It should be done at least once after the completion of 12 months from the previous survey.
• Fire risk assessment needs to be updated and reviewed regularly.
• It must be reviewed when it is presumed that the current assessment has lost its validity.
• A review should be conducted if the responsible person or any of the employees suspects that the current fire risk assessment is no longer effective.
• Fire risk assessment should be reviewed when there is a considerable change in the layout, operations, technologies, equipment, or structure of the building, you need to review the fire risk assessment.

So, the responsibility of when to review the fire risk assessment is on the responsible person. Suppose you are a landlord or a responsible person at a workplace. In that case, it is your responsibility to keep the fire risk assessment updated by conducting a review whenever required, as per the above guidelines.

When Do You Need to Conduct A Fire Risk Assessment?

The law requires every workplace to be surveyed regularly for fire risk assessment. It further requires that the assessment be reviewed regularly or whenever required, as discussed above. However, the fire risk assessment needs to be done on the following events:

• The first fire risk assessment needs to be done at the time of starting a new business at a workplace.
• If you change the premises of your business, you need to conduct a fire risk assessment of the new premises.
• Whenever there is a significant change in the employees or a change of role and responsibilities of the current employees, the fire risk assessment should be reviewed.
• A fire risk assessment may remain valid for 12 months if there is no significant change in the layout, number of employees, equipment, technologies, and operations at your workplace. However, it is advisable to review it periodically, even if there is no considerable change in your workplace. This is important to maintain the desired level of safety.
• Irrespective of the number of reviews done, a completely fresh fire risk assessment should be carried out after five years of initial such assessment.
• Though you can assign the task to any of your employees, it is recommended that you should get it done by a professional assessor at least once every five years.
• After every review, the employees must be briefed about the assessment. It will even be better if you can arrange training sessions for them. They must be trained to react in case of a fire incident. They must be guided on evacuating the workplace in case of such an incident. But above all, they must be trained to avoid or minimize the chances of such happening.
• Sometimes the local fire safety department may also inspect the premises, and if necessary, they may advise getting the fire risk assessment reviewed and submitting the findings. In this case, it will be binding to get it done urgently.
• For other reasons, a fresh Fire Risk Assessment must be done after five years of the initial assessment, irrespective of the number of reviews conducted during this period.

Conclusion

Fire risk assessment is the main tool in the hands of a business owner to ensure the safety of the employees against any fire risks. It is also a legal requirement that needs to be fulfilled by the responsible person. The main idea behind this assessment is to identify the risks and get them removed so the employees and buildings are saved from possible fire incidents.

Though the prevailing regulations are silent about the frequency and timings of conducting the fire risk assessment, it should be done annually. Additionally, there are various occasions and events when a review needs to be conducted, as discussed above. However, in any case, an annual review is a must to ensure the safety of employees.