Fire Risk Assessments — What Trades and Premises Owners Must Do (2026)

The Legal Framework — the Fire Safety Order

The core law is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, almost always shortened to the FSO. It requires a fire risk assessment for virtually all non-domestic premises in England and Wales — workplaces, shops, factories, warehouses, offices, care homes, pubs and the common parts of blocks of flats. It applies whether you own the building or simply occupy part of it.

Single private dwellings — an ordinary family home — are generally outside the FSO. But the moment a building has shared parts (the stairwells, corridors and entrance halls of a block of flats), or is used for business, the FSO applies to those areas. The law has been in force for nearly two decades, so "I didn't know" is not a defence a fire authority will accept.

Who is the "Responsible Person"?

The FSO puts the legal duty on the "responsible person". In a workplace this is the employer, where they have control of the premises. Beyond that it is the person who has control of the premises in connection with carrying on a trade or business — which can be the owner, the occupier, the landlord or a managing agent. On many premises there is more than one responsible person, and the FSO requires them to cooperate and coordinate.

Anyone with a degree of control — a contractor managing a site, a facilities company, a freeholder responsible for common parts — can also carry duties as a "duty holder". The practical point is simple: do not assume the duty sits with someone else. If you employ staff at a premises you control, the responsible-person duties almost certainly land on you.

Why This Matters to Trades — Two Ways

Fire safety law reaches trades from two directions, and it is worth being clear about both.

First, your own premises. If you run a workshop, unit, office or yard and you employ anyone — even one person — you are an employer with control of premises, and you must have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. That covers your unit's escape routes, your storage of flammable materials, your electrical safety and your alarm and extinguisher provision. Sole traders working alone from a domestic garage are a grey area, but the moment staff, the public or a commercial building are involved, the duty bites.

Second, the work you do for others. When you carry out electrical work, alterations, partitioning, fire-stopping, sprinkler installation or anything that penetrates a wall or floor, you directly affect the fire safety of that building. A poorly sealed cable penetration defeats compartmentation. A wedged-open or modified fire door defeats the escape strategy. The building's responsible person relies on your work being right, and your work feeds into their assessment. Get it wrong and you can be drawn into enforcement action and liability.

The Five Steps of a Fire Risk Assessment

A fire risk assessment is a structured look at the premises and the people in it. The recognised approach follows five steps. You work through them in order, and the assessment is a living document, not a one-off form.

1. Identify the fire hazards. Find the sources of ignition (heaters, electrical equipment, hot works, smoking), the sources of fuel (packaging, waste, flammable liquids, furnishings) and the sources of oxygen that could feed a fire.
2. Identify the people at risk. Consider everyone who could be present — staff, visitors, contractors, members of the public — and pay particular attention to anyone at greater risk, such as people with mobility or sensory impairments, lone workers and people sleeping on the premises.
3. Evaluate, remove or reduce, and protect. Assess the level of risk, remove or reduce hazards where you can, and put in protective measures — escape routes, detection, alarms, extinguishers and signage — to manage what remains.
4. Record your findings, prepare a plan and train. Write down the significant findings and the actions taken, prepare an emergency plan and make sure staff know what to do and are trained accordingly.
5. Review and update. Revisit the assessment regularly, and always after any significant change — new layout, new processes, new equipment, building works or a near-miss.

What a Fire Risk Assessment Covers

A competent assessment looks at the whole picture of how a fire could start, spread and be escaped. In practice that means examining:

• Ignition and fuel sources: electrical installations, heating, cooking, hot works, and the storage of combustible and flammable materials.
• Means of escape: the number, width and protection of escape routes, travel distances, and whether exits are kept clear and unlocked when occupied.
• Fire doors and compartmentation: whether fire-resisting doors, walls and floors are intact, correctly specified and properly maintained so that fire and smoke are contained.
• Detection and alarm: the type and coverage of fire detection and the alarm system, and whether it suits the building and its occupants.
• Firefighting equipment: the right types and number of extinguishers, correctly sited and serviced.
• Signage and emergency lighting: clear fire-action and escape-route signage, and emergency lighting so routes stay usable if the power fails.

How the Law Tightened After Grenfell

The fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017 drove a substantial tightening of the law, especially for blocks of flats and higher-risk buildings.

The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that, for buildings containing two or more domestic premises, the FSO applies to the building's structure, external walls (including cladding, balconies and windows) and the entrance doors to individual flats that open onto common parts. This closed a long-running ambiguity about whether these elements were in scope — they are.

The Building Safety Act 2022 created a tougher regime for "higher-risk buildings" — broadly, those at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more residential units — overseen by the Building Safety Regulator, with new duty-holder roles and accountability through design, construction and occupation. Alongside this, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 introduced specific duties on responsible persons of multi-occupied residential buildings, such as providing information to residents and to fire and rescue services.

For trades, the headline is that work on structure, external walls and flat entrance doors now sits squarely within fire safety law. Cladding, compartmentation and fire-door work on these buildings is scrutinised far more closely than it once was.

Recording the Assessment and Using a Competent Person

The responsible person must record the significant findings of the assessment. Where five or more people are employed, where a licence is in force, or where an alterations notice requires it, recording has long been a firm legal requirement — and the post-Grenfell reforms removed much of the old leeway, so recording the assessment is now the safe default for any non-domestic or multi-occupied premises.

The FSO requires that the assessment be carried out by a competent person — someone with the training, experience and knowledge to do it properly. For a simple, low-risk premises an informed owner may be able to do their own. For anything complex — sleeping accommodation, the public, higher-risk buildings, unusual processes — you should engage a competent fire risk assessor. Looking for a third-party accredited or certificated assessor is the sensible route, and it protects you if your assessment is ever challenged.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Fire safety is enforced by the local fire and rescue authority, which can issue alterations, enforcement and prohibition notices. A prohibition notice can close all or part of a premises immediately where the risk to life is serious.

Penalties are significant. Minor breaches can attract fines, while serious offences can be tried in the Crown Court and carry unlimited fines and, in the worst cases, imprisonment. The Fire Safety Act and subsequent reforms increased the level of fines available for certain offences. Beyond the legal penalty, a fire that injures someone exposes you to civil claims and the end of your business. Treat the assessment as protection, not paperwork.

Quick Reference: the Five Steps