Fire safety · FSO 2005 · PAS 79 / BS 9792 · Nationwide
Meet your duties as a Responsible Person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 with a structured, proportionate fire risk assessment. Safety Certificates UK matches vetted assessors for commercial premises and housing common parts across England, Scotland and Wales — one enquiry, clear significant findings, honest matching.
Tell us about the premises for a no-obligation fire risk assessment cost.
Why it matters
In England and Wales, the primary fire safety law for most workplaces and for the common parts of buildings containing two or more domestic premises is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order or FSO). It places duties on the Responsible Person — typically the employer, owner, landlord or other person in control — to take general fire precautions and to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed. The Order is not a “get a certificate once and forget it” regime: it is an ongoing duty to assess risk, implement and maintain precautions, plan for emergencies, and review when circumstances change.
GOV.UK publishes collections of guidance for those with legal duties, including material reflecting later reforms such as the Fire Safety Act 2021 and duties associated with section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022. Official guidance is the compass; industry standards are structured ways to evidence good practice — not a substitute for the law that applies to your building.
Scotland and Northern Ireland operate related but distinct fire safety frameworks. If your portfolio crosses borders, say so in your enquiry so we can match assessors familiar with the correct jurisdiction. This page focuses on the FSO language most English and Welsh landlords and employers recognise, while our network coordinates UK-wide capacity.
A competent fire risk assessment is the foundation document for Responsible Persons — usable significant findings and a prioritised action plan, not a vague pass/fail sticker filed and forgotten. See also Legionella, H&S audits and EICR & PAT.
Below: who shares duties, what PAS 79-1 and BS 9792:2025 expect, how our matching network operates, and how fire work sits alongside water hygiene and workplace audits. Practical articles: Advice Hub. Local coverage: locations. Quotes also at /quote/.
Dutyholders
Under the FSO, the Responsible Person is generally the employer (for workplaces) or the person who has control of the premises in connection with carrying on a trade, business or other undertaking. In multi-occupied buildings there may be more than one Responsible Person. Landlords of blocks of flats typically have duties for common parts; employers occupying individual units retain duties for their workplaces. Managing agents often act for freeholders day to day, but legal accountability must be understood contractually and in fact — outsourcing management does not magic away the need for a competent assessment and acted-upon findings.
Offices, shops, warehouses, factories, leisure buildings and similar need FRAs that reflect real occupancy, storage and process risks. Multi-site FM portfolios often prefer one coordination point and standardised reporting expectations rather than dozens of incompatible local templates.
Freeholders, managing agents and housing providers for HMOs, blocks of flats or maisonettes, specialised housing and related student accommodation typically follow the BS 9792:2025 housing pathway. Common parts, flat entrance doors and resident evacuation needs sit at the centre of a good housing FRA.
Recent reforms have sharpened expectations around recording assessments, sharing information between dutyholders, and — in relevant residential buildings — communicating with residents. If you are unsure whether you are a Responsible Person, start with official GOV.UK fire safety guidance collections.
Schools, universities and campus estates manage varied buildings, sleeping risk in halls, and public access. Change of use between term and holiday periods is a classic review trigger — bring assessments forward when occupancy patterns shift.
Hotels, gyms, leisure centres and mixed-use schemes often combine sleeping risk, public interface and complex escape strategies. Mixed-use buildings need clarity on who owns which FRA for which parts of the building.
High-rise residential or specialist industrial risks may need assessors with deeper demonstrable experience. An ordinary FRA is not a silent substitute for a PAS 9980 external wall appraisal — flag cladding or complex external wall concerns early so we match the right competence.
Framework
PAS 79-1:2020 (Fire risk assessment — Premises other than housing — Code of practice) remains a widely recognised publicly available specification for structuring and recording fire risk assessments in non-domestic premises: offices, shops, warehouses, factories, schools, leisure buildings and similar. It is not itself the Fire Safety Order, and following a PAS does not automatically prove legal compliance. It does, however, provide a disciplined methodology and documentation approach that many enforcing authorities and competent assessors recognise as good practice.
For housing premises, BSI published BS 9792:2025 — Fire risk assessment — Housing — Code of practice. It provides recommendations and example documentation for FRAs in scope housing, and represents a full revision and conversion of the earlier housing PAS route (PAS 79-2:2020, withdrawn). Following BS 9792 does not, by itself, discharge statutory duties — it helps you demonstrate a systematic, proportionate assessment and a clearer record for decision-making.
BS 9792 is not written as the methodology for private single-family dwellings, short-term holiday-let units, wholly non-domestic premises, or residential care homes. It also does not replace a specialist fire risk appraisal of external wall construction under PAS 9980. Dutyholders with cladding or complex external wall concerns need the right specialist product. When you request a quote, tell us the building type so we match the correct assessment pathway and competence. A PAS 79-style assessment walks through fire hazards, people at risk, evaluation of existing general fire precautions, determination of additional measures, and a clear record of significant findings. The quality of the assessor’s judgment matters more than the logo on the template: a thin tick-sheet that ignores realistic occupancy and building defects will not help when a fire officer asks searching questions.
How it works
After you submit an enquiry, our coordination team confirms premises type, housing versus non-housing pathway, storeys, occupancy and any existing FRA. We then match a vetted assessor with suitable competence for that risk profile — keeping the customer journey simple: one form, clear communication, multi-service options where useful.
You tell us building type, postcode, timeline and any existing paperwork. We confirm complexity signals (sleeping risk, high-rise, mixed-use, cladding concerns) before matching.
Assessors on the network are screened for relevant competence and insurance. You remain the Responsible Person; the matched assessor produces the professional FRA; we help you find capacity quickly across the UK.
On the day, the assessor typically walks the building with a site contact, inspects escape routes, doors, detection and warning, compartmentation, signage, extinguishers and management arrangements, and discusses occupancy and evacuation needs.
You receive a structured FRA with significant findings and an action list — not a vague sticker. Photographs support the written findings. Where urgent issues appear, priorities should be unmistakable.
Final exits and travel distances in real use
Fire doors, breaches and risky storage
Alarm, emergency lighting, extinguishers
Drills, training, maintenance and contractors
Vulnerable occupants and evacuation needs
Resident risk where BS 9792 applies
Review cycles
A fire risk assessment only protects people if the significant findings are recorded clearly, shared with those who need them, and turned into maintained precautions. Responsible Persons should keep the assessment under review when the building, occupancy or processes change — for example after refurbishment, a change from office to storage use, introduction of sleeping accommodation, or following a fire incident or near miss. Diary-driven reviews remain useful as a backstop, but validity is the legal idea: if the assessment no longer describes the premises as occupied today, bring the review forward rather than waiting for an arbitrary anniversary.
In multi-occupied buildings, information sharing between Responsible Persons (and, where relevant, with residents) has become a sharper compliance theme through post-Grenfell reforms. Practical examples include making sure a commercial tenant’s processes that affect common escape routes are visible to the freeholder’s assessor, and ensuring that flat entrance door responsibilities are understood rather than assumed. Honest limitations in a report are better than false completeness. Training and drills sit alongside the written FRA — staff need to know how to raise the alarm, escape, and assist others where that is part of the plan.
Network model
Safety Certificates UK / PASECOM matches vetted fire risk assessors; we do not perform the FRA in-house as a direct consultancy workforce. You instruct a competent matched assessor through our coordination process. That model scales nationwide, keeps independence clear, and lets you combine fire with Legionella or other services when diaries allow.
Where you also need a legionella risk assessment, an EICR, or a broader health and safety audit, ask for a bundle so visits can be sequenced efficiently. They overlap in “dutyholder competence and records” but they are not interchangeable certificates.
Why choose us
Housing versus non-housing pathways briefed honestly — BS 9792 or PAS 79-1 as appropriate.
Local assessors matched through one coordination team instead of endless supplier hunting.
Combine with water hygiene, workplace audits or electrical inspections when it helps.
FAQ
Straight answers for Responsible Persons, landlords and facilities teams considering a fire risk assessment.
Under the Fire Safety Order 2005 in England and Wales, the Responsible Person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of fire risks and keep it under review. Other UK nations have related duties. The assessment must be recorded in line with the applicable legal requirements for your situation.
PAS 79-1:2020 remains the widely used code of practice pathway for premises other than housing. BS 9792:2025 is the British Standard code of practice for fire risk assessment in housing, succeeding the withdrawn housing PAS 79-2 route. Choose the methodology that matches the premises type.
BS 9792 is aimed at housing types such as HMOs, blocks of flats, specialised housing and related student accommodation — not private single-family dwellings. Your FSO duties still depend on whether and how the Order applies (for example common parts in multi-occupied buildings). Ask if unsure.
No. Specialist external wall fire risk appraisals are a different product. Tell us if cladding or external wall construction is in scope so we do not pretend a standard FRA covers it.
No. We match vetted assessors through the PASECOM / Safety Certificates network and coordinate your enquiry.
Review when there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid — alterations, change of use, incidents — and at appropriate intervals. Many organisations diary a planned review; validity beats blind calendar worship.
Yes. Request a multi-service quote and we will aim to sequence visits efficiently. See our legionella risk assessment page.
See the primary sources strip below for legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and BSI Knowledge links.
Fire risk assessment duties and methodologies — verify against official publications:
PAS 79-1:2020 is a BSI Publicly Available Specification for FRAs in premises other than housing; obtain the current text from BSI. Always prefer the standard text and official law over secondary blogs when making compliance decisions.
Describe the premises and timeline. We match a vetted assessor and keep findings actionable. Also see /quote/, the Advice Hub and locations.
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