The point PhilB raises isn't just important it is a breath of fresh air. if I had one penny for everytime an assessor has come to me with a new fangled thing called quantitive risk assessment which looks at how many times a plug socket has burst into flames across the UK, how often a photocopier has spontaneously combusted in the whole of the UK how often a squirel has pee'd on a pylon which caused an electrical surge and started a fire somewhere in the UK etc etc I would be a billionaire.
The likelyhood of something catching fire in a low or medium risk environment might be low. But its the consequences of what might happen if it does occur that you have to bear in mind.
The statistics on which quantitive fire risk assessment is based may say that only 3 plug sockets have burst into flames in the UK over the past ten years but what on earth does that tell us in reality? It doesn't mean a plug socket won't burst into flames tomorrow does it? To me its a very strange way of quanitifying risk
