Fire Risk Assessment & Consultancy

Whose job is it to ensure this assessment is carried out in your business? In England and Wales, it’s the ‘responsible person’; in Scotland,  the ‘duty holder’; in Northern Ireland, the ‘appropriate person’. These people are also legally obliged to ensure any problems highlighted in the assessment are addressed.

Conducting your own Fire Risk assessment

Typically, The responsible person is typically one who has primary responsibility for the premises. It could be you, as the business owner, the facilities manager, or the manager of the buildings. In multi-tenanted buildings, each tenant has to carry out a Fire Risk assessment of their premises. They must then coordinate it with their landlord’s assessment. In blocks of flats, the Fire Risk assessment needs to also cover the common areas, such as stairs and corridors, but not necessarily the individual flats.

You must make sure the Fire Risk assessment is carried out to a competent standard. If your premises is relatively small and provided you familiarise yourself with the relevant guidance document, you can carry out the assessment out yourself. But, for larger or more complex buildings, you should employ a professional Fire Risk assessor to carry out the assessment.