Consultation on the Fire Risk Assessors Profession: Share Your Views

After due consideration of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Panel’s Phase 2 report, the critical findings regarding systemic failure and the recommendations within regarding fire risk assessments, the Government determined that it would “legislate to make it mandatory for anyone acting as a fire risk assessor to have their competence independently verified”.

The Governments consultation on the Fire Risk Assessors Profession in England presents a vital opportunity for practitioners to express their opinions on how that mandatory process might best be accomplished. This is a rare and crucial opportunity to help create the hugely important legacy of a safer future.

That said, responses to such consultations are never simple. Inevitably, there’s a great deal of information and a myriad of questions to be absorbed. Then it’s about balancing the information presented and answering from a personal perspective in terms of how fire risk assessment affects the individual, be they a building occupant, a building user, the ‘Responsible Person’, a client, a building owner, an insurer or, indeed, a practising fire risk assessor.

It’s also worth remembering that, while any outcome may only apply in England at this stage, all of the Home Nations are watching. Further, the duties detailed in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in terms of who undertakes the risk assessment are, as things stand, pretty flexible.

Setting out the vision

In setting out its vision for the profession, the Government makes several points that the fire risk assessment sector warmly supports. The keen focus is on reform leading to a coherent and consistent sector-wide demonstration of clearly high standards of competence that create a career pathway for a sustainable future workforce. Ultimately, the vision is for a profession that can both deliver quality and be effectively regulated.

The fire risk assessment sector has been involved in progressing professional improvements. Working with Government and others, the British Standards Institution has enabled individuals and organisations to manage, improve and demonstrate competency as part of the desire to create a safer built environment. That diligent work is illustrated by practical outcomes, including the publication of BS 8674:2025 Built Environment – Framework for Competence of Individual Fire Risk Assessors – Code of Practice.

Concentrating on the core role of fire risk assessment, the sector aim seeks to address the consultation’s underlying question: ‘How might a successful mandate operate in practice?’

Importantly, the sectoral view of the role and scope of the profession is that it cannot offer a ‘pass or fail’ for whether a building is ‘fire safe’, much as many owners might want such an outcome. The variations and complexities of building occupiers, usage, structures, materials, systems and engineering inevitably require a multidisciplinary approach and the engagement of other professions. It must be said that extending the profession’s scope risks weakening personal accountability.

Clear boundaries

If it’s to be regulated, competency requires clear boundaries. The view of the fire risk assessment sector is that three levels of demonstrated competence are practical and would sustain a safe profession. Nominally, remembering that the level of fire risk can only be fully assessed by undertaking the actual assessment, each of the three levels would match the majority of common building types that don’t require highly specialist skills, knowledge, experience or behaviours (SKEB).

Outlined in BS 8674, these three levels – ie Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced – express appropriate SKEB for each competence, which also aligns with the UK’s recognised accredited or certified competence. For example, an individual of Advanced level would be successful in an accreditation scheme, such as the BAFE SP205 Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment Scheme, itself recognised by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

Similarly, an individual operating at the Intermediate level would have appropriate Level 4 certification within the Regulated Qualification Framework (RQF), while someone at Foundation level, who could be a new starter or an apprentice (a scheme is being developed), would have RQF Level 2 or 3 certification. The sector has worked with Awarding Organisations and training bodies alike to ensure there’s widespread availability of these RQF qualifications as a key part of ensuring there’s sufficient capacity for a future regulated profession.

Enabling the transition and recognition of this competent workforce is vital since the unintended consequence of any failed transition is that of having a statutory requirement that cannot be fulfilled.

Using UKAS accreditation and RQF certification ensures that all qualifications are externally verifiable. Likewise, having a framework approach founded on a consensus-based British Standard places the onus on the individual to demonstrate competence and, if they’re part of an organisation, upon their organisation to ensure not only that they are competent (or supervised while gaining experience), but also that they maintain their competence and behave professionally at all times.

Requiring support

Some fire risk assessors own their business. As such, maintaining competence and oversight of professional behaviour requires support. Again, the sector’s professional bodies – the Institution of Fire Engineers and the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM), for example – have systems in place that assist these individuals. There’s also the model Code of Conduct, which is part of BS 8674.

Additional sector support for many individual and organisational fire risk assessors is also provided to those who are members of the Fire Industry Association (FIA) or the Fire Protection Association.

Right now, one sector initiative is very much focused on developing – alongside Skills England – a dedicated fire risk assessor apprenticeship. New starters are needed in an industry where over 65% of practitioners are aged over 50. This is no easy task, but through the IFSM and the FIA it’s pleasing to note that energy and pathfinder organisations have been found who are able and willing to build this essential new workforce of youngers. The fervent hope is to launch a new scheme at some point this year.

Ultimately, initiating the policy of implementation and regulation will be dependent upon the actions of Government. The sector considers that the transitional process outlined above offers a practical way forward, being soundly based on a developed thought process using three defined levels of competence.

Evolved over several years in partnership with Government, UKAS and RQF Awarding Organisations, stakeholders and the sector, it’s very much the case that steady, progressive and continuous progress has been made. What’s more, the professional commitment to make this mandate a success remains undiminished.

Having a sensibly phased introduction represented in the consultation Scenario 3, rather than a sudden ‘all change’ approach that would seriously challenge the fundamental ‘self-assessment’ basis of the Fire Safety Order itself, would allow ‘Responsible Persons’ and fire risk assessors the time to successfully adapt.

Dennis Davis CBE QFSM CEng is a Member of the Fire Risk Assessor Sector Group

*Access the Fire Risk Assessors Profession consultation online. The consultation closes on 18 June. Responses can be delivered online, via e-mail or in writing to Fire Risk Assessor Consultation, Attn: National Resilience and Fire Safety Division, Fry Building, 2 Marsham Street, Westminster, London SW1P 4DF