Fire Safety Risk Assessment

It is now a legal responsibility to complete a fire safety risk assessment in accordance with the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 in all non-domestic premises (including B&B’s & HMO’s) (Read more here...)

Carrying out a fire safety risk assessment is essentially a matter of applying common sense in consideration of the premises for which you have responsibility and identification of anything which could cause harm from fire.
It will allow you to make an informed decision on whether you have taken sufficient precautions or whether you need to do more to minimise the risk from fire.
A fire safety risk assessment will help determine the chances of a fire occurring and the dangers from fire that the premises pose for the people on them by taking an organised and methodical look at the premises; the activities undertaken within the premises; the potential for a fire to occur; and the harm it could cause to the people in, and around, the premises.

It is important to remember that it is not the responsibility of the Fire and Rescue Service to undertake a risk assessment; their role is the provision of advice and enforcement of the fire safety legislation. Nobody knows as much about your business/activities as you. Use your own knowledge and experience and that of your colleagues and employees to help identify key issues and practical suggestions for improvements.

If, however, you do not feel confident enough to undertake the fire safety risk assessment, for example, due to the complexity of the premises, the activities undertaken on them or the downtime it will cause you then you may wish to commission a fire safety specialist like ourselves to assist you.
As with many other services, when looking for a specialist, it is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that they have the necessary qualifications, experience and indemnity insurance (if appropriate). We can happily provide copies for your perusal.

When carrying out a fire safety risk assessment, you should adopt a practical and systematic approach. It must take the whole of the premises into account, including outdoor locations and any rooms and areas which are rarely used. If your premises are small you may be able to assess them as a whole. However, in larger premises, you will probably find it helpful to divide the premises into rooms or a series of assessment areas using natural boundaries such as offices, stores, workshops as well as corridors, stairways and external routes.

The fire safety risk assessment process involves evaluating, and keeping under review, the existing fire safety measures to establish whether they are adequate or if more requires to be done. For the purposes of fire safety risk assessment, a hazard is a situation that can give rise to fire; and risk is the potential for a fire to occur (i.e. likelihood) and cause death or injury (i.e. consequence).

We can either provide you our “pre-formatted” assessment pack to give you the best possible starting point from which to carry out your own assessment or alternatively our fire safety risk assessor can visit your premises and complete the assessment with only minimal input from yourself. Our assessor is available on both ½ day and full day rates.

Please contact us for details of our fire safety risk assessment pack cost & assessors rates.