Fire Risk Assessment Guidelines: What UK Assessors Need to Know
Fire risk assessments in England and Wales are governed by a framework of legislation, published standards, and government guidance. Knowing where to find the authoritative sources — and which ones apply to your specific assessment — saves time and strengthens your reports.
This guide maps the key guidelines you need to work from as a UK fire risk assessor.
The Legal Framework
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
The Fire Safety Order is the primary legislation. It requires the "responsible person" for any non-domestic premises (or the common parts of residential premises) to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and to implement preventive and protective measures.
Key provisions for assessors:
- Article 9: The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks and review it regularly. Since 1 October 2023, under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, the assessment must be recorded in full in all circumstances — the previous "5 or more employees" recording threshold has been removed
- Article 11: Fire safety arrangements — the responsible person must make and give effect to appropriate arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures
- Articles 8-22: Specific duties covering means of escape, fire detection, firefighting equipment, maintenance, training, and cooperation
The Order applies to England and Wales. Scotland has the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005; Northern Ireland has the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.
Fire Safety Act 2021
This Act clarified that the Fire Safety Order applies to the structure, external walls, and flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings. If you assess residential blocks, your scope must include these elements.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
These Regulations impose specific duties on responsible persons for residential buildings: sharing fire safety information with residents, fire door checks (quarterly for common parts, annually for flat entrance doors), and additional requirements for buildings over 11m and 18m.
Building Safety Act 2022
This Act created the Building Safety Regulator and introduced higher-risk building registration requirements. It reinforces the importance of fire safety during a building's lifecycle and introduced the concept of "Accountable Persons" for higher-risk residential buildings.
Published Standards and Guidance
PAS 79:2020
PAS 79 is published by BSI and provides the recommended methodology for fire risk assessments. It is not legislation, but it is the standard that enforcing authorities expect assessors to follow. Your reports should be structured per PAS 79:2020. See our section-by-section PAS 79 guide for practical advice.
BS 9999 — Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings
This British Standard provides guidance on building design for fire safety. It is useful when you need to evaluate whether travel distances, exit widths, or detection provisions meet recognised standards.
BS 5839-1 — Fire detection and alarm systems in commercial premises
Use this standard to evaluate fire detection and alarm systems. You should be able to identify system categories (L1-L5, P1-P2, M) and assess whether the installed system is appropriate for the building's risk profile.
BS 5839-6 — Fire detection in domestic premises
This part covers detection in residential properties. When assessing HMOs, you need to know the difference between LD1, LD2, and LD3 systems and which is appropriate for the property type.
Government Guides
The government publishes fire safety risk assessment guides for specific premises types, available free on gov.uk:
- Offices and shops
- Factories and warehouses
- Sleeping accommodation
- Residential care premises
- Educational premises
- Healthcare premises
Each guide provides practical guidance on applying the Fire Safety Order to that premises type. Enforcing authorities reference them regularly. The offices-and-shops guide is the one most commercial occupiers land on first; our walkthrough of fire risk assessments for offices and commercial property covers how it maps onto a real assessment, including shared-building and landlord/tenant boundaries.
Competence Requirements
Who can carry out a fire risk assessment?
The Fire Safety Order does not prescribe specific qualifications. Two separate articles are in play, and they are often conflated. Article 9(1) sets the standard of the assessment itself: the responsible person "must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed." The competent-person duty sits in Article 18, not Article 9 — Article 18(1) requires the responsible person to "appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the preventive and protective measures," and Article 18(5) defines competence as having "sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to assist in undertaking the preventive and protective measures." If it is not obvious in a given building who is responsible for a fire risk assessment — a common question in shared, leased and multi-occupied premises — that guide works through how the Order allocates the duty.
In practice, assessors are expected to have:
- Knowledge of fire behaviour and fire safety principles
- Understanding of the relevant legislation and standards
- Experience in carrying out fire risk assessments for the premises type
- Ability to identify fire hazards and evaluate risk
Third-party certification
BAFE SP205 is a certification scheme for fire risk assessors. While not mandatory, many local authorities and housing associations require BAFE-registered assessors — a consideration for anyone starting a fire risk assessment business targeting the public-sector or housing-association market. From the buying side, our guide sets out how to check an assessor's competence — what a certification claim should be verifiable against, and what to ask when it is not.
Professional bodies
The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) provides professional membership. NEBOSH offers fire-specific qualifications including the NEBOSH National Certificate in Fire Safety.
Summary
The legal framework starts with the Fire Safety Order 2005, extended by the Fire Safety Act 2021 and supplemented by the 2022 Regulations. PAS 79:2020 provides the assessment methodology. BS standards cover detection, building design, and fire doors. Government guides cover specific premises types.
For a ready-to-use template structured per PAS 79:2020, see our free fire risk assessment template. To estimate fees, use the FRA cost calculator.
AssessKit embeds these guidelines directly into the assessment workflow. Start free to try it.
Sources
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — UK Legislation
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Article 18 — Safety assistance (competent persons) — UK Legislation
- Fire Safety Act 2021 — UK Legislation
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — UK Legislation
- PAS 79:2020 — BSI
- Fire safety risk assessment guides — GOV.UK
Related guides
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: What Fire Risk Assessors Need to Know
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added duties for high-rise residential buildings. What each regulation requires and how it changes FRA scope.
Do Landlords Need a Fire Risk Assessment? A UK Guide for Responsible Persons
Do UK landlords legally need a fire risk assessment? What the law requires, where your duties start and stop, and whether you can do it yourself or hire.
How Often Should a Fire Risk Assessment Be Reviewed?
How often a fire risk assessment must be reviewed in the UK: the legal duty, why there's no fixed annual interval, and the events that trigger an early review.
Generate your next PAS 79 report with AssessKit
Structured assessments, professional PDF reports and action tracking — free to start.
Free plan — no credit card required.