If someone asked you today to show how fire risk is being managed in your workplace, would you know what to produce?

For many employers, fire safety becomes most visible when something changes. A refurbishment takes place. Occupancy increases. The building is used differently. A near miss raises questions. Or an action from an earlier assessment has been sitting unresolved for longer than it should.

The trap is treating fire safety as a one-off exercise.

A fire risk assessment sits at the centre of workplace fire safety. It looks at the hazards in your premises, the people who may be at risk and the measures in place to protect them. But the assessment also has to remain relevant as the building and its use change.

For an employer, that means thinking beyond whether you have a report on file. The more useful question is whether your current fire safety arrangements still match the workplace you are responsible for today.

What legislation covers fire safety in the workplace? 

If you control or manage a workplace, the law expects you to know how fire risk is being managed. The person who carries that responsibility is referred to as the “responsible person”.

The main fire safety legislation behind those duties includes the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which places responsibility on the “responsible person” to carry out and regularly review a fire risk assessment. The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations also require responsible persons and employers to make sure suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments are carried out. 

The legislation gives you the framework, but day to day it comes down to something much more practical: knowing what the risks are, what has been done about them and who is responsible for anything still outstanding.

Who is responsible for fire safety in the workplace? 

In a workplace, the “responsible person” will often be the employer, building owner or whoever has control of the premises.

You can bring in competent specialists to assess the building and advise you on what needs to change. What you cannot do is assume the responsibility ends when the surveyor leaves.

Once an assessment has been completed, someone within the organisation needs to understand the findings, decide who is taking each action forward and make sure those actions do not quietly disappear into an inbox or spreadsheet.

This is one of the easiest places for things to slip, especially where several teams, contractors or sites are involved.

What are an employer’s workplace fire safety requirements?

For most employers, the fire risk assessment is where the process starts. It gives you a structured look at the building, the hazards within it and the measures already in place.

Start with a suitable fire risk assessment

A fire risk assessment is a legal requirement for almost every non-domestic building, as well as the common areas of multi-occupied residential buildings.

A proper assessment should reflect the premises in front of the assessor, not a generic version of what an office, warehouse or other workplace is supposed to look like.

It can cover:

  • ignition sources and fuel loads
  • means of escape
  • fire detection and warning
  • emergency lighting and signage
  • compartmentation
  • fire safety management arrangements

The assessment should leave you knowing where the main concerns are and what, if anything, needs attention.

Act on what the assessment finds

This is where a fire risk assessment either becomes useful or becomes paperwork.

Imagine the report identifies a problem with an escape route, a weakness in compartmentation and an issue with emergency lighting. Recording those findings matters, but the building is not safer simply because they now appear in a report.

Someone needs to pick those actions up, understand what should come first and see them through.

Our fire risk assessments include risk-graded findings, photographic evidence and clear, proportionate recommendations so the people managing the building can see what needs attention without having to decode a highly technical report.

How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed? 

There is no benefit in treating the review date like an MOT date and ignoring everything that happens in between.

As a general guide, we consider an annual review good practice, with a fuller reassessment typically carried out every few years. But circumstances matter more than the calendar.

You should revisit the assessment sooner if there is reason to believe it no longer reflects the premises. That could be because of:

  • alterations to the building
  • a change in use
  • a change in occupancy
  • an increase in occupant numbers
  • a near miss
  • a fire
  • an enforcement notice

Take a refurbishment. New partitions go in, services are rerouted and a space starts being used by more people than before. The assessment from before the works may still be on file, but it was written for a different version of the building.

That is the moment to look again, not several months later because the annual review has finally come around.

Planning changes to your workplace? Bring fire safety in early 

A refurbishment, extension or change of use can affect more than the layout of a workplace. Moving walls, changing escape routes, installing new services or using an area differently can all have an impact on existing fire safety arrangements.

It is much easier to deal with those questions while the work is being planned than after everything has been built, fitted and signed off. 

For larger changes, you may need more than an updated fire risk assessment. Depending on the work, this could include:

  • A fire strategy can set out how fire safety will work across the building, including escape, compartmentation, fire spread and access for the fire service.
  • A compartmentation survey can take a closer look at fire-resisting walls, floors, ceilings, voids and service penetrations where there are concerns about passive fire protection.
  • A review of the fire risk assessment can check whether the existing assessment still makes sense once the works or change of use are complete.

You will not need every type of survey every time you alter a workplace. A small change and a major refurbishment are very different projects. But where substantial work is planned, bringing fire safety into the conversation early can save you from discovering later that something important was missed.

Not sure what your workplace needs next? 

Fire safety can become harder to manage when different teams, contractors and building changes are all part of the picture. Sometimes the challenge is not knowing there is a problem, but knowing what should happen next and who needs to be involved.

If you want a clearer view of your current position, contact our team. We can talk through your workplace, the fire safety information you already have and where further support may be useful, so you can move forward with a clearer plan.

FAQ

Do all workplaces need the same fire safety measures?

No. The measures you need depend on the building, how it is used, who occupies it and the risks identified in the fire risk assessment.

When might a fire door inspection be needed?

If your fire risk assessment raises concerns about damaged, poorly fitted or defective fire doors, a dedicated fire door inspection may be the next step.

Does DSEAR apply to every workplace?

No. DSEAR is relevant where dangerous substances such as flammable liquids, gases, vapours, dusts or mists could create a fire or explosion risk.

What is the difference between a fire risk assessment and a compartmentation survey?

A fire risk assessment looks broadly at the fire hazards and controls across your workplace. A compartmentation survey goes deeper into the building’s passive fire protection, including fire-resisting walls, floors, ceilings, voids and service penetrations.