Fire Safety in blocks of flats – The Risk Assessment Process

Approaching and beginning a fire risk assessment for a block of flats can seem a tough and intangible process. However, part of the reason for this is the necessity for flexibility to encompass different types of building and business. Therefore, there is no single right way to achieve a successful fire risk assessment (FRA). 

For that reason, guidance is available to assist you in constructing your FRA in a way that will mould the process and help to produce the resulting action plan.

Both the HM Government guide ‘Fire safety risk assessment: sleeping accommodation’ and British Standards Institution publicly available specification, PAS 79 (‘Fire risk assessment: guidance and a recommended methodology’) make suggestions on the steps that should be followed when undertaking a fire risk assessment for a block of flats. In addition, the Complete Fire Safety Management platform offers a step-by-step guide and templates to guide you more smoothly through the process.

All these methods of approaching the FRA aim to ensure that your final result satisfies the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The requirement for a documented FRA applies to businesses with five or more employees and must be undertaken by the ‘responsible person’. The responsible person can be a suitably experienced and responsible member of staff who is nominated as part of their job role to undertake the FRA and to progress the resulting actions. In the absence of a suitably nominated ‘responsible person’, the responsibility falls by default to the business owner.

It is also true that on occasion, a business with less than five employees is bound to undertake and document an FRA and action plan under the terms of the Fire Safety Order. The terms of the order simply state that a business with less than five employees does not have to document their FRA, not that they do not have to undertake one, and in the case of owning and running blocks of flats, it is essential that appropriate risk assessments are undertaken and documented.

The most basic form of documented FRA and action plan that can be recorded must comprise at least the following items:

- What measures have been taken to comply with the FSO
- Any actions that have or will be taken to achieve compliance
- Any persons who are highlighted as being at risk, as a result of the FRA

There are no fixed rules about how the FRA or action plan should be formatted or presented, but following a logical and laid out path can help to provide clarity and achieve your aims of being fire safe and compliant with the terms of the Fire Safety Order.

If you would like more information about the legal requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, are unsure if applies to your business, or would like to discuss anything else related to fire risk assessments or the Complete Fire Safety Management platform, please contact Peter Gyere on 020 8668 8663.

The Complete Fire Safety Management Platform - Our aim, at CFSM, is to make the process of becoming fire-safe straight forward, and to use our expertise in fire risk assessment and fire safety management to guide you through each necessary step, resulting in your premises meeting all legal, insurance and ethical fire safety considerations. The Complete Fire Safety Management platform is part of Lawrence Webster Forrest Limited, one of the UK's longest established Fire Engineering and Fire Risk Management Consultancies.