The legal trigger points.
"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person regularly so as to keep it up to date and particularly if — (a) there is reason to suspect that it is no longer valid; or (b) there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates."Article 9(3), Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
"Significant change" is deliberately broad. The changes that invalidate an assessment in practice:
- Building works — extensions, mezzanines, layout changes, new openings through compartment walls, re-cladding.
- Change of use or occupancy — office to studio lets, shop to food premises, increased occupancy, introduction of sleeping risk.
- Occupant profile change — residents or staff with new evacuation needs (PEEP triggers), a nursery moving into a mixed-use building.
- Process and storage change — new machinery, lithium-ion charging areas, flammable stock, increased storage height.
- Fire, near-miss or unwanted alarm pattern — an incident is automatic evidence the assessment needs re-examination.
- Failed checks — recurring fire door or alarm defects indicating the control regime isn't holding.
- Regulatory change — the 2021 Act, 2022 Regulations and Section 156 each obliged review of existing assessments' scope and recording.
Review vs reassessment.
| Annual review | Full reassessment | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | Structured re-examination of the existing assessment against the premises as now found; action plan progress verified; changes evaluated | The assessment performed afresh — full inspection, full recorded report |
| When | At least every 12 months (convention; often an insurance or HMO licence condition) | Every 3–5 years, after major works or change of use, after a fire, or where the review finds the document no longer reflects the building |
| Output | Dated review record appended to the assessment; updated action plan | New full report superseding the old — retained for the audit trail |
Risk-based frequency
Twelve months is a ceiling, not a universal answer. Sleeping-risk and vulnerable-occupancy premises — care homes, hotels, larger HMOs — often justify six-monthly reviews; very simple, static premises can defend the annual cycle comfortably. The assessment itself should state its recommended review date and the reasoning, and the responsible person should diarise it: an overdue review is the easiest breach for an auditing officer to establish, because the date is on the front page.
Who performs the review
The responsible person can conduct interim reviews where nothing has changed and they are competent to judge that. Where change has occurred, where the premises carries sleeping risk, or where a licence or insurer requires it, the review should return to a competent assessor — Article 9A applies to reviews exactly as it does to the original assessment. See choosing an assessor.