The assessment is not a certificate issued by the fire service, and no fire authority in England or Wales issues "fire certificates" for existing premises — that regime ended when the Fire Precautions Act 1971 was repealed in 2006. The fire risk assessment, held by the responsible person, is the compliance document. Since 1 October 2023, Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 requires the assessment to be recorded in full, in every case, regardless of how many people are employed.
The five components of a compliant assessment.
Government guidance and the PAS 79-1 methodology structure a fire risk assessment around five steps. Every professionally produced assessment follows this sequence:
- Identify fire hazards — ignition sources (electrical equipment, heating, cooking, smoking, arson vectors), fuel (combustible storage, waste, furnishings, structural linings) and oxygen sources (natural ventilation, oxidising materials, medical or compressed gases).
- Identify people at risk — employees, residents, visitors, contractors, and specifically anyone at heightened risk: sleeping occupants, lone workers, children, elderly or disabled persons requiring a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP).
- Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect — assess the likelihood of ignition and the consequence for escape, then apply control measures: detection and alarm, emergency lighting, escape routes, fire doors, compartmentation, extinguishers, signage.
- Record, plan, inform, instruct and train — record the findings and the fire safety arrangements (Article 11), produce an action plan, communicate risks to staff and other responsible persons, and train employees.
- Review — keep the assessment under regular review and revisit it after any material change to the premises, occupancy or processes.
"The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions he needs to take."Article 9(1), Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Which premises the duty applies to.
| Premises | Assessment required? | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Offices, shops, factories, warehouses | Yes — mandatory | Whole premises |
| HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) | Yes — mandatory | Common parts; licensing conditions frequently extend scope. See HMO licensing |
| Blocks of flats | Yes — mandatory | Common parts, flat entrance doors and external walls (Fire Safety Act 2021) |
| Hotels, B&Bs, guest houses | Yes — mandatory | Whole premises including sleeping accommodation |
| Schools, nurseries, care homes, hospitals | Yes — mandatory | Whole premises |
| Single private dwellings | No | Outside the Order's scope |
Who must arrange it
The duty sits with the responsible person — the employer in a workplace, or the owner or person in control of the premises in other cases. The responsible person may appoint a competent professional to carry out the assessment, and for anything beyond the simplest premises this is the expected route: assessor competence must now be considered under Article 9A, inserted by the Building Safety Act 2022.
What "suitable and sufficient" means in practice
The Order does not prescribe a format, but enforcement officers and courts test assessments against the depth of the suitable and sufficient standard: hazards identified systematically, persons at risk named by category, existing measures benchmarked against the relevant guidance document for the building type, and significant findings translated into a dated, prioritised action plan. A tick-box template that ignores the building's construction, travel distances or occupancy profile will fail that test.