Fire Risk Assessment Legal Requirements Across the UK

Nation	Principal fire-safety legislation
England	Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, with additional England-only residential regulations
Wales	Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, alongside the developing Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 regime
Scotland	Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006
Northern Ireland	Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

These frameworks share similar fire-risk-management principles, but their scope and terminology should not be treated as interchangeable.

For an overview of assessment scope, responsibilities and procurement, see Fire Risk Assessments in the UK: The Complete Guide.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the Responsible Person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to relevant people.

The assessment must identify the general fire precautions required to protect people who may be lawfully on the premises or in their immediate vicinity.

Depending on the premises and contractual arrangements, the Responsible Person may be:

• The employer
• The building owner or freeholder
• A landlord
• A managing agent or management company
• An occupier or tenant
• Another person with control of the premises

There can be several Responsible Persons within the same building. A landlord may control communal areas and building systems while commercial tenants control their own occupied areas.

Those parties must cooperate and coordinate their arrangements. Appointing an external fire risk assessor does not transfer the Responsible Person’s underlying duties to the consultant.

The assessment should reflect:

• The premises and activities carried out within it
• The people who may be affected
• Sources of ignition and combustible materials
• Fire detection and warning arrangements
• Escape routes and evacuation procedures
• Fire and smoke separation
• Testing, maintenance and fire-safety management
• People who may require additional assistance

The scope should be specific to the actual building. A generic report applied across several materially different properties is unlikely to demonstrate a suitable assessment of each premises.

The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified how the Fire Safety Order applies to buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises.

For these buildings, the assessment must consider relevant risks associated with:

• The building’s structure
• External walls, including doors and windows within those walls
• Balconies and external attachments
• Common parts
• Doors between flats and common areas

This does not mean that the Fire Safety Order applies generally to everything inside an individual private flat. However, features such as flat entrance doors can directly affect the protection of communal escape routes.

A general FRA may identify a concern with flat entrance doors without providing a detailed door-by-door repair schedule. A separate fire door inspection may therefore be required before remedial work is tendered.

Clients should also define whether the instruction is limited to a visual common-parts assessment or requires access to flats or destructive investigation. See Types of Fire Risk Assessments Explained.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply in England only.

They place additional duties on Responsible Persons for multi-occupied residential buildings. The precise requirements depend on the building’s height and characteristics.

Depending on the premises, duties can include:

• Providing plans and external-wall information to the fire and rescue service
• Installing and maintaining a secure information box
• Checking lifts and equipment intended for firefighters
• Installing wayfinding signage
• Checking communal fire doors
• Using best endeavours to check flat entrance doors
• Giving residents prescribed fire-safety information

These requirements should not be copied into Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish tender specifications without confirming that an equivalent duty applies.

Residential evacuation plans from April 2026

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force on 6 April 2026 and apply only in England.

They apply to buildings containing two or more domestic premises where the building is:

• At least 18 metres above ground level; or
• At least seven storeys; or
• More than 11 metres above ground level and operating a simultaneous evacuation strategy.

The Regulations introduce processes intended to identify relevant residents whose ability to evacuate without assistance is affected by a physical or cognitive impairment or condition.

They include duties relating to person-centred fire-risk assessment, emergency evacuation statements and building emergency evacuation plans. Resident participation and the sharing of relevant information are subject to consent requirements.

The requirements do not apply to every residential building in England. The height, number of storeys and evacuation strategy must be checked before including them within an FRA specification.

The Fire Safety Order remains the principal fire risk assessment legislation for workplaces, non-domestic premises and relevant parts of multi-occupied residential buildings in Wales.

The Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 creates a wider legal framework for regulated residential buildings, including provisions relating to occupied-building safety and the remediation of certain building-safety defects.

However, the Act should not be described as having replaced the Fire Safety Order or as making every proposed duty immediately operational.

Some of its practical requirements depend on:

• Commencement orders
• Secondary regulations
• The category of the building
• The part of the Act being considered
• Transitional arrangements

As of July 2026, the Welsh Government was still consulting on regulations needed to implement parts of the remediation and building-categorisation regime.

A Welsh tender should therefore distinguish between:

• Existing duties under the Fire Safety Order
• Building-control requirements
• Provisions of the Building Safety (Wales) Act that are in force
• Duties that depend on future commencement or secondary regulations
• Remediation obligations applying to the specific building

English residential-regulation wording should not be copied automatically into a Welsh project.

The main legislation for most non-domestic premises in Scotland is:

• The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005
• The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006

The legislation applies to workplaces, commercial premises, public buildings and various forms of sleeping accommodation. Those with control or fire-safety responsibilities are generally described as dutyholders rather than Responsible Persons.

Where the legislation applies, the dutyholder must assess the premises, identify the risk to people from fire and implement appropriate fire-safety measures. The assessment should be specific to the premises rather than generic.

Domestic common areas in Scotland

A significant difference applies to the common areas of domestic blocks.

Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 does not generally impose a statutory requirement to complete an FRA for the common areas of domestic premises.

Scottish Government guidance nevertheless strongly recommends that organisations responsible for managing high-rise residential blocks assess fire risk as part of responsible building management.

The guidance also explains that facilities and equipment provided for firefighter use or protection in common areas must be properly maintained.

Other legislation relating to housing, licensing, building standards and specialist accommodation may still apply. A Scottish residential project should therefore state the building type and legal basis for the assessment rather than referring to the England-and-Wales position.

Northern Ireland’s principal fire-safety framework consists of:

• The Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006
• The Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

For relevant premises, employers, owners, occupiers and others with control must assess fire risk and introduce appropriate measures to protect people.

The Northern Ireland assessment process follows the familiar stages of:

• Identifying fire hazards
• Identifying people at risk
• Evaluating and reducing risk
• Recording and planning
• Reviewing the assessment

Recording the assessment

The Fire Safety Regulations require prescribed information to be recorded where the dutyholder:

• Employs five or more employees; or
• Requires a licence or registration under a statutory provision for the premises; or
• Is subject to an alterations notice requiring the information to be recorded.

This refers to the number of employees employed by the dutyholder, not merely the number of people who happen to be working at the premises during an inspection.

Flats, maisonettes and HMOs in Northern Ireland

The position for residential common areas differs from England and Wales.

Article 50 of the 2006 Order generally excludes domestic premises and the common areas of private dwellings from the full fire-safety duty framework. Houses in multiple occupation are not included within that exclusion and are treated as relevant premises.

For ordinary private flats and maisonettes, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service does not generally enforce a statutory requirement to carry out and review an FRA of the common areas under the 2006 Order.

However, Regulation 24 of the 2010 Regulations requires the maintenance of specified facilities and equipment provided in common areas for the protection of firefighters. These can include:

• Firefighting lifts
• Firefighting shafts and stairs
• Smoke-control systems
• Dry or wet rising mains
• Other specified firefighter-protection measures

NIFRS also recommends that managing agents assess and review fire risk in domestic common areas as good practice, even where the full statutory FRA duty does not apply.

A tender should therefore avoid stating that every block of flats in Northern Ireland is subject to the same statutory common-parts FRA duty as a block in England or Wales.

The phrase suitable and sufficient comes from the Fire Safety Order, but the practical principle is relevant to any assessment: the work must be detailed enough to identify significant risks and appropriate precautions for the premises concerned.

The assessment should take account of:

• Building construction and use
• Occupancy and vulnerability
• Fire hazards and activities
• Detection and warning systems
• Escape routes
• Evacuation strategy
• Fire and smoke separation
• Testing and maintenance
• Fire-safety management
• Known changes and defects

Preparation is important because missing plans, inaccessible areas and incomplete maintenance information can limit the assessor’s findings.

See How to Prepare for a Fire Risk Assessment.

Receiving the report does not complete the dutyholder’s responsibilities.

In England and Wales, changes introduced through section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 require Responsible Persons to record the completed fire risk assessment and fire-safety arrangements in full.

Responsible Persons must also:

• Record the identity of anyone appointed to complete or review the assessment
• Identify other Responsible Persons within the premises
• Cooperate and coordinate with relevant parties
• Retain relevant fire-safety information
• Pass relevant information to an incoming Responsible Person

These requirements came into force on 1 October 2023.

Requirements elsewhere in the UK differ, but the practical process should still establish:

• Who receives the report
• Who owns each action
• How completion will be recorded
• When the assessment will be reviewed
• What changes will trigger reassessment

See What Should a Fire Risk Assessment Report Include? and How Often Should a Fire Risk Assessment Be Reviewed?.

Where recommendations lead to remedial work, What to Do After a Fire Risk Assessment provides a commercial route for managing agents and referred clients to obtain contractor quotations. This is a commercial landing page rather than part of the FRA editorial cluster.

The complexity of the premises should determine the competence required.

A straightforward, low-risk premises may sometimes be assessed internally by someone with sufficient knowledge and capability. More complex premises are likely to need an external assessor with relevant experience.

Clients should examine:

• Experience of the building type
• Knowledge of the relevant UK jurisdiction
• Qualifications and continuing professional development
• Third-party certification or registration
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Sample reports
• Technical-review arrangements
• The named individual who will attend

Proposals for mandatory independent certification of fire risk assessors in England remained under development in July 2026. They should not be presented as an existing universal licensing requirement across the UK.

See How to Choose a Fire Risk Assessor.

The likely cost will also depend on the building, inspection depth and competence required. See Fire Risk Assessment Cost in the UK.

When comparing Fire Risk Assessment Companies, the tender should identify:

• The UK nation in which the building is located
• Building use, height, storeys and occupancy
• Areas controlled by the commissioning party
• Other dutyholders or Responsible Persons
• The principal legislation and relevant guidance
• Residential duties applying to the building
• Assessment type and inspection boundaries
• Required records and report format
• Assessor competence and jurisdictional experience
• Review and action-management expectations
• Known enforcement, licensing or building-safety issues

Bidders should explain which legal framework they have considered rather than relying on a generic promise to comply with “all UK regulations”.

For wider procurement guidance, see Fire Protection Tenders in the UK: The Complete Guide and How Commercial Fire Protection Tendering Works.

Common mistakes include:

• Referring to one UK fire risk assessment law
• Applying England-only regulations throughout the UK
• Treating private flats and common parts as legally identical
• Failing to identify all parties with control
• Assuming the assessor takes over the client’s legal responsibility
• Using an assessor without relevant jurisdictional experience
• Failing to record or retain required information
• Not reviewing the assessment after significant changes
• Ignoring actions once the report is issued
• Tendering remedial work directly from vague FRA recommendations

The assessment instruction should clearly identify the jurisdiction, premises, legal scope and required deliverables.

For clients

Use Fire Risk Assessment Companies to compare providers with relevant experience of the building type and UK jurisdiction.

A structured scope helps ensure that each bidder considers the same legal duties, inspection boundaries and reporting requirements.

For assessors and consultancies

View Fire Risk Assessment Tenders for opportunities with defined premises information and compliance requirements.

Assessors should demonstrate knowledge of the legislation applying where the building is located rather than relying on a generic UK-wide methodology.

Is fire risk assessment law the same throughout the UK?

No. England and Wales principally use the Fire Safety Order. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate legislation, and the treatment of residential common areas differs between the four nations.

Who is legally responsible for arranging an FRA?

Responsibility normally rests with the employer, owner, landlord, occupier or another person controlling the premises. Several people or organisations may share duties in the same building.

Must every fire risk assessment be recorded?

The rules differ by jurisdiction. In England and Wales, Responsible Persons must record the completed assessment in full. Northern Ireland requires prescribed information to be recorded where specified thresholds apply, including where the dutyholder employs five or more employees.

Does the law require a new FRA every year?

There is no single UK-wide rule requiring every building to receive a completely new assessment every 12 months. The assessment must be reviewed and updated when changes, incidents or new information affect its validity.

Must a fire risk assessor hold one particular qualification?

There is no single qualification currently required for every assessor throughout the UK. The assessor must nevertheless have competence appropriate to the premises, jurisdiction and assessment scope.