A fire risk assessment sits in a drawer until somebody asks for it. Then it becomes the single document that decides whether a business has a defence, or a problem, in front of an inspector, an insurer, or a court.
Last year, fire and rescue services in England attended 13,134 fires in buildings other than private homes, a figure that covers offices, warehouses, shops and industrial units. Every one of those buildings should have had a current fire risk assessment in place before the fire started, because UK law has required it since 2006.
This guide covers what a fire risk assessment must legally include, who carries responsibility for arranging one, what happens when a business skips or ignores this duty, and how to choose someone competent to carry it out.
What UK Law Actually Requires From a Fire Risk Assessment
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places a legal duty on every non-domestic premises in England and Wales to hold a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. The Order applies to almost every type of commercial building. Offices, warehouses, shops, factories, care homes, schools and the common areas of multi-occupied residential blocks all fall inside its scope.
Official government guidance sets out five steps a compliant assessment has to cover: identifying fire hazards, identifying the people at risk, evaluating and reducing those risks, recording findings and preparing an emergency plan, then reviewing the whole assessment regularly. Skipping any one of these steps leaves the assessment incomplete, regardless of how thorough the rest of the document looks.
When findings must be written down
Any business employing five or more people, or operating under a licence such as an alcohol or entertainment licence, must record the significant findings of its fire risk assessment in writing. Smaller premises without a licence carry a lighter recording duty, though detailed Home Office guidance for offices and shops recommends written records regardless, since a written record is the practical way to demonstrate compliance during an inspection.
Who carries the legal responsibility
The Order places this duty on the Responsible Person, defined as the employer where a workplace is involved, or the person with control of the premises in any other case. In a multi-let commercial building, more than one Responsible Person can exist at once, and each must cooperate and share relevant findings with the others. A managing agent, a landlord and an individual tenant can all hold separate obligations under the same roof.
What Happens When a Fire Risk Assessment Is Missing or Out of Date
An enforcing authority, almost always the local fire and rescue service, has the power to inspect commercial premises and request evidence of a current fire risk assessment at any time. Where none exists, or where an existing assessment has clearly fallen out of date against how the building is now used, the authority can issue an enforcement notice requiring specific improvements within a set timeframe.
In more serious cases, where a fire and rescue authority judges a premises to present a genuine risk to life, it can issue a prohibition notice restricting or banning use of all or part of the building until the risk is addressed. Ignoring either type of notice is a criminal offence, and courts have handed down significant fines to businesses found in breach.
Insurance complicates the picture further. Many commercial policies now require evidence of an active, reviewed fire risk assessment as a condition of cover. A claim following a fire can be challenged, delayed or refused entirely if an insurer discovers the assessment was missing, expired or never followed up with the recommended remedial action.
Choosing a Competent Person to Carry Out the Assessment
Smaller, straightforward premises can sometimes be assessed by the Responsible Person themselves, provided they hold enough training and experience to do the job properly. Anything more complex, such as a multi-occupied building, a site with vulnerable occupants, unusual layouts or significant fire loading, generally needs a professional fire risk assessor.
The National Fire Chiefs Council publishes guidance on verifying a prospective assessor’s competence before appointing them. Its recommendations include checking evidence of compliance with recognised competency criteria, confirming relevant experience with similar premises, requesting references from previous clients, and confirming the assessor carries adequate professional indemnity insurance.
Fire and rescue authorities are not able to carry out a fire risk assessment on a business’s behalf, even where they are willing to offer general advice. That responsibility, and the choice of who completes it, rests with the business alone.
What Happens During a Fire Risk Assessment Visit
A fire risk assessment is a physical walkthrough of a premises, not a form filled in from a desk. A competent assessor needs to see escape routes, storage areas, electrical installations and fire safety equipment in person before drawing any conclusions.
The site visit itself
The assessor works through the building systematically, checking fire doors close correctly, escape routes stay clear, extinguishers sit in the right locations and are in date, and any dangerous substances are stored appropriately. Staff awareness matters too. An assessor will often ask employees what they would do if the alarm sounded, since a fire safety plan nobody understands offers little real protection.
Preparation makes this process faster and more accurate. Sending over a simple checklist before the visit, covering things like recent building alterations, current occupancy numbers and any previous fire incidents, means the assessor spends the visit assessing risk instead of gathering basic facts on the spot.
The report and action plan
Once the visit is complete, the findings need auditing before release, since a fire risk assessment carries legal weight and errors in it create real exposure. A properly structured report separates urgent action points, the sort that need addressing within days, from lower-priority recommendations that can be scheduled over the following months.
For businesses managing several sites, a shared reporting system that tracks action points, review dates and sign-off status across every location removes a significant amount of manual chasing. That visibility catches a single overdue action at one site early, well before an inspector or an insurer raises the question directly.
Why Reviewing an Assessment Matters as Much as Writing One
A fire risk assessment is not a certificate that stays valid indefinitely once issued. It needs revisiting whenever a building’s use, layout or occupancy changes materially, and as routine good practice at least once a year regardless.
Common triggers for a review include a change of tenant or business activity, an extension or internal alteration to the building, a significant increase in stored materials or stock, or any near miss that reveals a gap in the existing precautions. A business that reviews its assessment only when prompted by an inspection has usually already fallen behind.
Arranging a Fire Risk Assessment for Your Business
Thor Fire works with qualified partners to deliver fire risk assessments for commercial premises across the UK, from our base in Oldham. Every assessment is audited by our compliance team before release, then made available through cloud-based reporting software that gives full visibility over findings, actions and review dates across every site in a portfolio.
Alongside fire risk assessments, our engineers also carry out the fire alarm, fire extinguisher and fire damper work that most assessments end up recommending, so remedial action can start without a second procurement process.
To arrange a fire risk assessment or discuss an existing one that needs reviewing, call 0161 339 7736 or get in touch through our contact page. An assessment that sits in a drawer protects nobody. One that gets acted on protects everybody in the building.
