FSF publishes new standard for fire risk assessors

A new industry standard for fire risk assessments has been published by the Fire Sector Federation (FSF) and Fire Risk Assessors Working Group to help improve assessor competency and understanding.

Titled Industry Benchmark Standard for Fire Risk Assessors, the FSF document offers practical guidance for assessors who want to better understand the application of fire risk assessments across a wide range of buildings. While it does not signify a qualification or certification for assessors, its intent is to establish a set of quality standards and practices and “support a professional discipline of fire risk assessment that can be applied across the whole of the United Kingdom”.

The purpose of the benchmark standard is to “(a) define fire risk assessment competence at three levels and (b) support delivery of comparable standards across the sector”.

The guidance given within the standard is split across three distinct risk levels, as follows:

• Foundation – Fire risk assessments within low-risk premises
• Intermediate – Fire risk assessments within medium-risk premises
• Advanced – Fire risk assessments within high-risk premises

By covering a wide range of building types and scenarios, it is hoped that the public can be confident of the competency of the assessments carried out, including building owners and Responsible or Accountable Persons.

Additionally, the guidance can help promote a pathway for career progression in fire risk assessments by increasing an assessor’s levels of skill, knowledge, experience, behaviour, and competency. As detailed in the 31-page document, the standard is to be read in conjunction with the Approved Code of Practice ‘A National Framework for Fire Risk Assessor Competency’. It offers an expanded viewpoint by “recognising fire risk assessment is not always easy or simple, being a dynamic and reflective process of how a building is constructed, used, and occupied”.

FSF Executive Officer and leader of the Fire Risk Assessors Working Group, Dennis Davis, said: “This Benchmark Standard has been developed by the Federation’s Fire Risk Assessors Working Group to expand and complement our previous work on competency. It supports the need for a systematic assessment of fire risk followed by the implementation of recommended appropriate controls, mitigation, and continuous management of fire safety.

“Our aim is to raise the professional status of the important work undertaken by fire risk assessors. We also wish to engage with all those proficient assessors, operating without formal or recognised competency assurances, to help them seek appropriate independent accreditation.”

The next step will see the work of the FSF Fire Risk Assessors Working Group developed alongside BSI’s new Competence in the Built Environment Committee CPB/1 to create a British Standard Code of Practice.

The full FSF document can be read here.