The optimum period between inspections depends on a number of factors but, typically, many people default to once per year. If your employer has made a management decision to carry out the inspections once per year then that is up to them. Either they have been provided with sound advice to adopt this policy or they have defaulted to it out of ignorance.
Now, either you can trust their judgement or you can establish why this period is inappropriate and present your evidence to them in an effort to make the process more cost effective.
In making your judgement as to what might be the most appropriate time period between inspections you might consider some or all of the following (not an exhaustive list and in no particular order):
Staff turnover
Management turnover
Fire safety policy implementation
Increased vulnerability in assembly buildings
Fire safety management
Fire safety awareness by the staff
High risk processes
The complexity of the existing fire safety control measures
The effectiveness of the existing fire safety control measures
How heavily reliant the overall fire safety strategy is upon those control measures
Fire safety system maintenance programmes
In short, you have to consider not only how safe the building is when you inspect it but also, how likely it is to remain safe over the period until the next inspection.
For example, there would be few buildings that any fire risk assessor would say did not need to be inspected more than once every three years. Three years is a long period of time and it is easy to visualise many faults arising during that period. On the other hand, not many buildings need to be regularly inspected once every six months because there is not usually enough change within that time frame to make subsequent visits worthwhile.
A lot of companies adopt once per year for higher life risk buildings such as assembly buildings, care homes, etc and once every two years for lower risk buildings such as offices or showrooms. It's simple and it appears to fit the bill. Note that shops and bars would, in general, tend to be in the annual inspection category of most companies.
Stu
