Fire Risk Assessments for Offices and Commercial Property: A Responsible Person's Guide

Every office and commercial premises in England and Wales needs a fire risk assessment. There is no size exemption and no "too small to bother" threshold — if it is a workplace, the law applies, and the employer who controls it is the person legally responsible. What changes between a two-desk studio and a 3,000-square-metre office block is the depth of the work, not whether it is required.

This guide sets out who the responsible person is, what the assessment covers, and how to decide whether to do it yourself or bring in a competent assessor.

This article summarises UK fire safety law for educational purposes and is not legal advice. The responsible person carries the legal liability for fire safety in the premises, even where the assessment is carried out by a competent assessor. For specific compliance questions, consult a competent fire risk assessor or your local fire and rescue authority.

Offices Are Always In Scope

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to virtually all non-domestic premises in England and Wales, including every workplace. Offices, shops, warehouses, studios, and commercial units are all covered.

Article 9(1) sets the duty plainly: "the responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed." There is no lower limit on premises size or staff numbers. A single-room office above a high-street shop is as much in scope as a corporate headquarters.

This catches a lot of small businesses by surprise. The Fire Safety Order is not a "big building" regime — it is a duty on whoever controls any workplace.

Who Is the Responsible Person

Article 3 of the Order is unusually direct for a workplace:

"in relation to a workplace, the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under his control"

So in a single-occupier office, the employer is the responsible person. Two situations need more thought:

• Multi-tenant buildings. Each employer is the responsible person for the part of the building they occupy and control (their demise). The landlord or managing agent is the responsible person for the shared areas — the main entrance, lifts, common stairwells, and shared facilities. Both have duties to cooperate and coordinate, because a fire does not respect the lease line.
• Serviced offices and co-working spaces. Control is the test. The operator typically controls the shared infrastructure and escape routes; the individual businesses control their own suites. Responsibility follows control, and the assessment needs to reflect how the building is actually run.

As with every premises type, the duty to carry out the assessment can be delegated to a competent person, but the legal responsibility stays with the responsible person.

What the Assessment Covers

For a typical office, a competent assessment works through the recognised ground:

• Fire hazards — electrical equipment and its maintenance, heating, kitchen and tea-point appliances, stored paper and packaging, and any specific process hazards.
• People at risk — staff, visitors, contractors, and anyone with reduced mobility who would need help to evacuate. Personal emergency evacuation arrangements where relevant.
• Means of escape — travel distances, exit widths, final exits that open easily without a key, and routes kept clear of storage.
• Detection and warning — an appropriate fire detection and alarm system, tested and maintained.
• Firefighting equipment — the right extinguishers, accessible and serviced.
• Emergency lighting and signage — where escape routes need them.
• Management — the fire safety arrangements, staff training, drills, testing records, and the written assessment itself.

The Home Office and gov.uk publish premises-specific guidance (offices and shops, factories and warehouses) that enforcing authorities reference. A competent assessor follows a recognised structured methodology, records a risk evaluation, and produces an action plan with timescales.

Recording Is Now Mandatory for Every Office

This is the change that trips up small businesses most often. Since 1 October 2023, under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, the gov.uk guidance is unambiguous: "You must now record the fire risk assessment in full (including all the findings) and the fire safety arrangements for your premises in all circumstances."

The old position — that the written record was only mandatory with five or more employees — has gone. A two-person office must now keep a full written assessment. If you commissioned an assessor, you should also record their name and, where applicable, their organisation. For a deeper look at how to act on what the assessment finds, see our guide to fire risk assessment action plans.

Do It Yourself or Hire?

The Fire Safety Order does not require a qualification — only competence. Here is a straight way to decide.

Self-assessment is reasonable when the office is a single, simple, open-plan or small-cellular space; the hazards are ordinary office hazards; there is one clear escape route or two straightforward ones; and you genuinely understand fire spread, detection, and escape well enough to spot and evaluate a deficiency. A competent business owner can do this for a low-risk office.

Engage a competent assessor when the premises are large or multi-storey; the building is mixed-use or multi-tenant with shared escape routes; there are significant process hazards (a workshop, a commercial kitchen, flammable stock); or you are simply not confident you could defend your findings to a fire and rescue officer. The fee is modest against the liability — our fire risk assessment cost guide puts a small office in the £200–£350 range, and the FRA cost calculator gives a quick estimate for your premises.

Because the liability for an inadequate assessment stays with the responsible person, the decision is really about risk appetite as much as cost. For anything beyond a simple low-risk office, a competent assessor is the safer call.

Review and Keep It Current

The Order requires the assessment to be "reviewed by the responsible person regularly so as to keep it up to date and particularly if— (a) there is reason to suspect that it is no longer valid; or (b) there has been a significant change." There is no fixed legal interval, but annual review is common practice for a stable, low-risk office, with an immediate review after a significant change — a refit, a change of use, a layout change, or a fire incident. Our review date calculator helps set a sensible schedule and the triggers that would bring it forward.

Summary

Offices and commercial premises always need a fire risk assessment — there is no small-business exemption. The employer who controls the workplace is the responsible person, the assessment must now be recorded in full regardless of staff numbers, and it must be reviewed to stay current. For simple low-risk offices a competent employer can self-assess; for anything more complex, a competent assessor is the safer route, because the liability never leaves the responsible person.

For assessors and firms handling commercial assessments across multiple clients, AssessKit keeps each site, action plan, and review date in one place, structured to a recognised methodology (PAS 79-1 for non-domestic premises, BS 9792:2025 for housing). Start free — two assessments a month on the Free plan, no card required. See pricing for the full plans, or about who is building it.

Sources

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Article 3 — Meaning of "responsible person" (legislation.gov.uk)
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Article 9 — Risk assessment
• Fire safety responsibilities under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (GOV.UK)
• Fire safety in the workplace: your responsibilities (GOV.UK)