Standards Development

Scope

This British Standard focuses on the competence required to undertake a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to life in occupied buildings arising from fire. Undertaking a fire risk assessment is a legal requirement in some buildings and good practice to facilitate any building being used safely. The standard aims to assist those undertaking fire risk assessments (1), recommending and implementing controls, mitigation arrangements and the continuous management of fire safety.

Current guidance is fragmented. It also recognises fire risk assessment must be a dynamic process reflecting a building’s construction, use and occupation. The primary aim is to secure life safety from fire rather than protection of property, although benefits are often derived for this secondary purpose.

This British Standard provides benchmark criteria to be demonstrated by individual fire risk assessors, rather than organisations. Three competence threshold categories are described, which are also matched to generalised characteristics of buildings. For some buildings there is a legal requirement to have a fire risk assessment and having competence categories matched to applicable buildings helps duty-holders to demonstrate legal compliance and select a fire risk assessor with appropriate competence.

Scoping the general characteristics for a range of buildings is linked to recommendations regarding the general suitability and applicability of each of the three fire risk assessor categories. This not only enables those responsible for appointing a fire risk assessor to select and appoint a suitable person, it also allows individual fire risk assessors to exemplify their competence.

This British Standard, being generalised, recognises that very simple, or conversely very specific or specialised operations and buildings, may use either very basic guidance, or conversely require highly specialised additional competence, which is beyond the scope of this standard.

This British Standard does not cover the design, product testing and certification, fire engineering, management and maintenance of protective systems, used in the construction or renovations of buildings, including the design, installation, implementation and maintenance of fire strategies and detection and protection systems used to prevent, control and mitigate fire.

Purpose

The standard will offer a common and uniform series of criteria for fire risk assessor competence. Fire Risk Assessors assumed prominence following introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 when undertaking a fire risk assessment became a legal duty on those having a life safety responsibility for certain buildings (the Responsible Person). The Order requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to identify the general fire precautions needed (risk of fire, fire spread, means of escape, securing escape, firefighting, detection and alarm, training and fire mitigation). Importantly, when introduced, the Order deliberately enabled a fire risk assessment to be conducted directly by the Responsible Person without any demonstration of their competence.

New building safety regime provisions, included in the Building Safety Act 2022, will require anyone the Responsible Person appoints to assist them to carry out a fire risk assessment to be competent (having sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities). This proposal following preparation, by the Fire Risk Assessor Working Group created after the Building a Safer Future report, seeks to meet this new statutory framework, implement BSI Flex 8670 and assist professionalization of the fire risk assessor sub-sector with verifiable competence criteria.

The fire risk assessor community has expanded considerably since 2005. Many individuals are active: some are registered with one of the two predominating forms of third-party assured systems that exist for companies and individuals; others have qualifications without demonstrable skills, experience or behaviour; further Individuals are without any demonstrable competence although they may be proficient from experience; and finally there are persons who are not deemed proficient.

The standard, through benchmark requirements, seeks to unify, by providing a structured framework, the extant fire risk assessor sub-sector, enabling it to expand by developing career pathways, professionalise and become recognisable, through measurable and verifiable criteria of performance, in order to safely help protect the public by defining requirements for competent fire risk assessors.

Additional detail

The fire risk assessment process adopted is capable of meeting various circumstances and situations. It requires interpretation based upon the individual’s skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour anchored to the underlying principle of being consciously aware of ‘knowing what you don’t know’.

Because the scope is extremely wide, having been developed with a universal view of building types, occupancies and uses, there is a requirement for a clear application of the above principle, given sometimes one feature of construction, use or occupancy, may not be apparent or conform to accepted or known performance.

This highlights a need for the fire risk assessor to be capable, aware and vigilant in the validation of their assessments. For example, an individual premise initially appearing to present low fire risk may, because of non-adherence to guidance, standards, products, processes, occupancy or construction, be of a higher and more complex fire risk. The criteria described will underpin this assessment process.

In undertaking a fire risk assessment, the assessor is invariably contracted to assist another person as a competent individual. A duty of care exists towards that person to ensure awareness of any fire risk, critical to life safety, and any action(s) that must be taken, including any immediate prohibitive building use, identified in the assessment.

Awareness by established fire risk assessors, to consider carefully how to recognise changes between existing regulations, guidance, practices and construction development to maintain awareness, will be highlighted. An existing industry Approved Code of Practice provides background on personal qualities and attributes together with detailed learning outcomes and assessment methodologies.

The standard focuses activity within fire risk assessment at three distinct risk level categories:

1. Foundation – Fire Risk Assessments within low-risk premises

2. Intermediate – Fire Risk Assessments within medium risk premises

3. Advanced – Conducting Fire Risk Assessments within high-risk premises

Descriptions of the three corresponding building types of low, medium and high risk are also detailed.

The standard will adopt a process of gaining experience with mentoring a key component. Supervision in the early career stage is seen as essential together with continuous professional development. Career development from the Foundation stage has the defined benchmark criteria required, to satisfy this initial and each following progressive level, in respect to achieving competence, together with requirements for maintaining professional quality and continuing personal development.

Fire risk assessors using this standard will be able to demonstrate they are a competent person having suitable knowledge, skills, experience and behaviour and, when instructed, capable of undertaking a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and effectively communicating advice on the findings.

(1) A methodical process of qualitative and quantitative measures with recorded significant findings on fire risk management for those instructing and responsible for fire safety, e.g. PAS 79-1:2022