Fire risk assessors in England: a survey of competency, capacity, and experience

Product Description

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (2005) places a statutory duty on responsible persons (RPs) to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions they need to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on them by the Order. RPs can undertake the assessment themselves using statutory guidance published by the government to help them do so. However, our guidance recommends that they appoint a competent fire risk assessor (FRA) in anything other than a simple premises.

There is very limited existing evidence about who FRAs are and how they complete their role. Therefore, the Home Office developed this survey to aid in addressing an evidence gap pertaining to who FRAs are, how they complete their role and to gain a better understanding of the FRA sector in England.

This report looks to understand the above considerations by answering the following research questions (RQs):
Research question 1!<</b>: What are the functional characteristics of FRAs?
Research question 2: What is the competency of FRAs?
Research question 3: What is the capacity of FRAs?
Research question 4: To what extent do in-house and fee-earner FRAs differ in their capacity and competency levels?
Research question 5: To what extent do certificated, professional body members and non-member FRAs differ in their capacity and competency levels?

This survey took place between 6 July 2023 and 4 September 2023, with a total of 1,404 responses received, of which 1,272 were from FRAs working in England.