Fire Risk assessment period

[Healthy&Safe]

Hi all

Just a noob question.
How often does a business need to carry out a fire risk assessment?
whats the law / guidelines?

Thanks

[stephen1974]

Yearly if there are no incidents or changes, or after any incidents or changes

I would suggest doing an assessment of any proposed changes so you can adentify problems before someone spends thousands of pounds building new walls only to find out they've built a death trap.

[Messy]

Sorry to be pedantic, but although the HM Govt's guidance to the Fire Safety Order recommends annual reviews, there is no requirement in law.

The truth is that the Responsible Person (RP) must keep the risk assessment up to date (see Article 3 below). Therefore in a large complex building, there may be multiple reviews (some people call them audits) per annum. As a result, the fire risk assessment must be seen as a dynamic process that is live and could be ever-changing.

However it is sensible to have a periodic review detailed. As can be seen below, the risk assessment must be review regularly

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 3) Any such assessment must 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(a)there is reason to suspect that it is no longer valid; or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 in the matters to which it relates including when the premises, special, technical and organisational measures, or organisation of the work undergo significant changes, extensions, or conversions,
and where changes to an assessment are required as a result of any such review, the responsible person must make them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In fact, where the RP has to record the findings of a risk assessment, he must also record the process of reviewing it.

Article 11 staes:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fire safety arrangements

11.—(1) The responsible person must make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the size of his undertaking and the nature of its activities, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures.

(2) The responsible person must record the arrangements referred to in paragraph (1) where—

(a)he employs five or more employees;
(b)a licence under an enactment is in force in relation to the premises; or
(c)an alterations notice requiring a record to be made of those arrangements is in force in relation to the premises.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My employers have 100 premises. Some are very large and complex with 1000s of occupant and others simple and in some cases, are rarely occupied. The risk assessment will consider how 'regular' to carry out the review on a risk based approach.

We review some 6 monthly and others annually or up every 2 years - with some at 5 yearly -although they are exceptionally low risk


Lastly, have a look here at this guidance issued to enforcers by the Chief Officer Association in respect to Reviewing the risk assessment

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 9(3) “underlines the principle of dynamic risk assessment. In other words risk assessment is an ongoing process. The responsible person could not carry out his risk assessment and then forget about it; it must be kept constantly under review.” This article indicates key triggers for the review of a risk assessment however, the use of the term ‘regularly’ may require some explanation:

(a) As the nature of work changes, the appreciation of hazards and risks may develop. Monitoring under the arrangements required by article 11 may reveal near misses or defects in preventive and protective measures. Adverse events such as a fire or other dangerous occurrence may take place even if a suitable and sufficient risk assessment has been made and appropriate preventive and protective measures taken. Such events should be a trigger for reviewing the original assessment.

(b) The responsible person needs to review the risk assessment if developments suggest that it may no longer be valid (or could be reasonably improved in line with the principles of ALARP and SFAIRP). In most cases, it is prudent to plan to review risk assessments at regular intervals. The time between reviews is dependent on the nature of the risks and the degree of change likely in the work activity. Such reviews should form part of standard management practice.

Any fire risk assessment must be reviewed by the responsible person regularly so as to keep it up to date. There is no definition of regularly but annually is generally accepted to be best practice.

[witsd]

A simple approach that has served me well:

A building that is in the process of changing – 3–6 monthly, depending upon the extent and rate of change.
Multiple high risk findings – Annually.
General high risk premises (sleeping accommodation, fuel storage on site etc.) – Annually.
Normal risk premises – Every two years.
Low risk premises unlikely to change (e.g. a secure, empty building) Every five years.

Just remember that in many cases, the review date of the FRA is determined by the FRA, and whilst that may be sensible there is the potential for a conflict of interest as a dishonest assessor may try to get themselves extra work by bring the review date forward.