Can I do my own Fire Risk Assessment?

This is one of the most common questions we get asked and the answer is never as straight forward as we would like it to be, but hopefully this article will make it a lot simpler.

First off, I’m going to speak in very “Laymans” terms in this article to try and simplify a very complex subject, this means I may oversimplify some scenarios, examples and the general advice given. We therefore need to make it clear that you should always seek more in-depth professional help and not take this guide too literally, every business and premises is different, so we urge you consult a professional as much as possible.

Before you consider taking on your own Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) there’s a few points which you need to consider.

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2. Who is the “Responsible Person” in a Fire Risk Assessment?

Well, the government guidance says the Responsible Person can be any of the following:

• an employer
• the owner
• the landlord
• an occupier
• anyone else with control of the premises, for example a facilities manager, building manager, managing agent or risk assessor.

But before you decided who you are going to assign as the Responsible Person in your Fire Risk Assessment, its will be useful for you to know what this title means.

Ultimately it officially makes this person “responsible”, sounds obvious I know but it means the buck stops there, for example if a manager of the business was named as the “Responsible Person” but then any recommendations which were made in the Risk Assessment were not actioned by the owner it would be the Manager having to explain that to the authorities not the owner of the business.

To summaries I would always make the business owner or the person right at the top the “Responsible Person” if for example it’s a limited company then I make the company itself the RP. So, for example I would list “AMP Fire Ltd” as the RP in our Risk Assessment then who ever runs or owns the company is the RP.

3. If you have 5 or more employees or people.

The rule of 5 is a fundamental part of the FRO (Fire Reform Order 2005) which in short states any organisation with 5 or more people must have a written FRA, this also must be completed by a competent person, but we will get to that in the next step. Firstly, depending on where you read sometimes is says people and sometimes it says employees, this is just one of many frustrations I have with the clarity of official government advice.

I would strongly advise you to base this on “people” as it includes, tenants, customers, sub-contractors, members of public and other scenarios not just persons whom you may employee etc.

It’s also considered that the rule of 5 should be based on the organisation as a whole, for example we have a client who has multiple offices across the West Midlands, some of the offices only have a couple of members staff and only a couple of customers who are appointment only, but the business as a whole employees over 100 people, in this scenario we would recommend you perform a FRA for each office not just the offices with 5 or more people.

To summarise if you are the “Responsible Person” and your responsible for more than 5 people at any time then a full written FRA is what you need.

4. Who is the competent person in Fire Risk Assessment ?

You’re competent right?... I mean you pay your bills, your good at your job, and manage your life, ok? So, this makes you a competent person yeah?

This is one of the other frustrations with the language that’s used in official government guidance, it states that an FRA must be completed by a competent person, but it doesn’t explain what they consider to be competent.

In business competency is usually backed up with 3^rd party accreditation, an electrician is competent to work to the relevant British Standard Regulations and this is proven with training, certification from 3^rd party accreditations and membership to a governing body.

But a competent person is also just someone competent in general right?

Well, this is an area we see lots of issues, not being competent does not mean you’re stupid and the problem is you don’t know what you don’t know.

A common issue is Fire Alarm vs Smoke Alarms for example, I meet lots of smart “competent people” everyday who have no idea what the differences is? and why should they? So when it comes to that section of the FRA where it says, “Have you got an adequate Fire Alarm?” these people look up at the ceiling, maybe see some smoke alarms, even go as far as to press the test button and proceed to write “yes, our premises has an adequate fire alarm”.  And in doing so they’ve just made an epic mistake… Fire Alarms come in a plethora of grades and categories and each one is designed for different type of building.

To summarise if you’re doing your own FRA make sure you get lots of advice, speak with expert engineers in Fire Alarms, Extinguishers, Fire Doors & Emergency Lights and also consider enrolling in some fire safety courses, if someone official questions your assessment can you prove you’re competent?

4. What if some aspects of the Fire Risk Assessment are out of our control?

This is a tricky one and is dealt with in the FRO under article 22.

This part of the legislation in short says “there are no excuses,” if there’s anything that’s out of your control then it’s the “responsible persons” job to find a way to mitigate this.

For example we have clients who are a tenant in a larger building complex and the fire alarm is for the whole building not just the offices and floors they occupy, they discovered the alarm was not being serviced as it should be to meet regulations so they challenged the landlord, according to the contract they have, it clearly stated the landlord was responsible for the servicing of the Fire Alarm so problem solved yeah?

I mean It’s not their fault the landlord isn’t looking after this life saving system, is it? …

…Well unfortunately that’s not how a court would see it if something went wrong, the tenants would still be responsible for the people in their business and so in the end had to pay for the alarm to be serviced and then had to pursue the landlord legally.  

It’s an unfortunate situation and easy to see how a business in this situation could think it’s not their fault but that’s not how a judge would see it.

So, should I do my own FRA?

If you want my honest opinion, unless you are a one-man band or literally only have 4 or fewer people in your premises at any one time then I would always use an independent Fire Risk Assessor, the Fire Reform Order is a complex piece of legislation and since the tragic events of Grenfell Tower local authority inspectors have increased a huge amount.

Paying someone to complete your FRA does not have to be expensive though and ultimately if you find the right person, like an accountant they should save you money in the long run.

Here at AMP Fire we are all about giving you value so have number of complete free of charge services and guides to help you understand Fire Risk Assessments, Fire Safety and the Fire Protection Equipment that’s in your premises, from passive fire stopping barriers like fire doors etc, to active firefighting equipment like extinguishers and lifesaving systems like Fire Alarms and Emergency Lighting.

Feel free to contact us to speak to actually fire protection engineers not salespeople for advice, we also offer Free of Charge Fire Safety Surveys on your premises which can be a starting point for your Fire Risk Assessment.

I hope you find this article interesting and useful. 

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