Fequency of fire risk assessments and interim reviews

[Fire Monkey]

Hello,

My organisation may be reviewing the frequency of our own internal fire risk assessments (we do our own as we are qualified). We obviously wish to ensure that high fire safety standards are met but wish to expand the frequency of assessments. We would keep sleeping accommodation as yearly but may hope to move lower risk premises beyond every two years. We have many sites that have simple means of escape, are single storey, have low risks and some may have an in date landlord FRA already in place.

We would always ensure that assessments are undertaken if material changes to the building, including means of escape, occur or if there is a significant changes to the hazards, risks, occupancy or management (or if there was a fire).

As our team are 'building managers' we make regular site visits to our sites and we have the option (which we do) to review the condition of the building (like fire doors etc) whilst we are there and take appropriate action.

In between FRAs may I ask about the suitability (other than just adding value) of reviews and just what under the legislation what a review should entail. Does this effectively have to be a full assessment (and just called a review) - I note that the review PAS 79 (a very good document) still requires a full building inspection and staff interview and often takes the same amount of time to inspect and write up (and take remedial actions) as a standard assessment.

Legislative views would be appreciated - particularly based on experience (what goes wrong when frequencies are decreased), insurance and changing trends and industry standards.

Can a review just include updating the existing FRA and adding information to it - such as minor repairs/faults required, updates for the Action List or does it have to be fully written? Can this updated document just in the Fire Book as is (along with any required instructions to the occupants).

Just how long should the frequencies be (all other things being equal and standard risks apply) for :

1) Offices
2) Libraries (single storey, small)
3) Youth Centres
4) Highway Depots
5) Landlord managed properties with their own FRAs
6) Multiple occupancy buildings (several departments not connected and in defined areas and separate management)
7) Family Centres
Offices with over 150 staff and members of the public present
9) Adult education centres (possibly with cooking classrooms)

Yes the above is simplistic and every building must and would be assessed individually, based on prior experience of the site and FR findings, but your thoughts are welcome.

I believe we know what the correct process wold be but I would be amiss if I did not ask some sound industry experts.

Many thanks,

[wee brian]

Some random thoughts,

A fire risk assessment and building maintenance aren't the same thing.

The legislation essentially says to review your FRA often enough......

Assuming you have proper maintenance arrangements in place, then you mostly need to think about how often stuff changes that might affect the FRA and how competent local managers are at keeping on top of this stuff.

It would be best to have some kind of rationale for whatever policy you adopt. this might help when an inspector calls and should also help when your gaffer decides to cut the maintenance budget etc etc.

[Davo]

Fire Monkey

When working I used a points matrix to indicate frequency of re-inspection and also urgency of action for defects found (credit goes to AK for getting me off the L/M/H ladder!)

davo

[AnthonyB]

Increasingly I'm seeing organisations replace annual FRAs (sometimes done by external firms, sometimes in company at Head Office level) by annual reviews.

The reviews usually take the old FRA and check:
- Has the use, persons at risk or layout changed since the FRA?
- Are the training regimes still in place and are all current staff covered?
- Is the stated maintenance regime still in place and up to date?
- Have all outstanding actions from the FRA been carried out?
Most don't go into hazard/defect spotting as the organisation usually has separate daily/weekly/monthly walk around check lists

Where all the above are unchanged/OK no further action is carried out and a new review date set.

If the review reveals the FRA may now be invalid it triggers reassessment.

The reviews range in level of recording from a handwritten summary on the cover of the original FRA to more formal single or multi page forms.

A potentially big issue is competency (I recall some large chains that did six monthly 'Fire Risk Assessments' that were just fire safety checklists and expected to be competed by minimally trained managers), however as long as this is managed I see no reason for initial FRAs to be followed by annual audits - some of the adopters of this are national organisations (some who may have a Lead Authority arrangement) so will be likely to have consulted on this or been inspected since adoption.

[kurnal]

Reinspection frequency should be based on risk. Risk involves many factors, occupancy is just one. So the re-inspection frequency will be specific to each building based on the findings of the FRA.

Going back to basics and forgetting the Law and  guidance for a minute, what are your objectives in managing fire safety? Obviously ensuring that relevant persons are not placed at risk but how far do you want to go? ROSPA gold standard or doing enough to keep the fire service happy and your Directors out of court? What resources have you got to implement the policy and how realistic is it that you can achieve your goals?

I used to get so frustrated with health service and local authority clients. So often they would insist on Gold plated standards as an objective and appoint staff to administer the policy and tiers of meetings to report progress. But the sharp end would always be under resourced and staff would be so busy reporting on failures that they would not have time to actually do the job. And when they did find work needed there would be no money available so they would produce lists and priorities and more reports......Then they would be so far behind with the inspection program that  consultants would be brought in and often their work would be inadequate leading to more work for the team and  a change of focus to one of arguing technical standards and contractual details......all a huge waste of money. One local authority finally brought my company in to audit the work of the initial consultant and offered us a larger fee for the audit work  than we would have charged for the assessments in the first place!

In summary you should set your reinspection frequencies based on risk at the individual premises. Yes guidance suggests annual reviews but that's a benchmark. Your duty is to protect relevant persons, and ensure you have an effective system in place for managing and reviewing fire risk. Above all it should be achieveable otherwise it is not being effectively managed. The fire service will enforce the legislation in accordance with the CFOA audit system which is light on inspections and heavy on management. It sounds like you are well ahead of the field already and provided you record your policy and have records to show it is being met I think you will not go far wrong.  

I recollect local authority clients where we have recommended full reviews on a range from 6 months -5 years and for all premises an annual summary review. In the old days of fire certificates some low risk premises would never be reinspected.

[Mike Buckley]

I would agree with both anthonyb and kurnal, it very much depends on the risk involved in the premises.

At the simplest the review could be look at the previous FRA see if anything has changed and update the progress on the previous action plan, major changes, fires etc. should trigger a full FRA. Then for simpler premises do a full FRA every 5 years. For bigger more complex premises then the period between FRAs can be reduced. I have worked on one building that was extremely large and complex and had a number of tenants where the local FB requested annual FRAs.

[Fire Monkey]

Thanks all. I feel comfortable that we are on track and that we can safely mange risk and review when certain triggers are met.

Kurnal - you mentioned objectives. These include (on top of life protection and the legislation), improved training of occupants, reputational risk, business continuity, meeting insurance requirements, building protection (where required) ability to deliver said inspections and continuing fire safety excellence for the company and our selves.

Generally we have reasonable funding so our recommendations tend to get approved and day to day repairs are always done.

Our whole team are all trained assessors with two of us on the IFE register.

Thanks,