BAFE’s latest campaign is designed to inform premises management and the public that specifying Third Party Certification is only part of the process in acting with due diligence. It has recently received the full support from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).
The campaign, Don’t just Specify, Verify! points out the important second, and sometimes overlooked, verification stage when specifying and sourcing a competent Third Party Certificated provider to help comply with fire safety legislation.
“As noted in Government guidance, specifying Third Party Certification is a robust method of sourcing a competent provider to help you fulfil your fire safety obligations. However, there is still an onus on the premises management [Responsible Person/Duty Holder] to check that their chosen providers are appropriately Third Party Certificated and competent for the work required.
“If you specify a Third Party Certificated provider, but don’t verify this before awarding a contract, this could result in insufficient fire safety in your building and makes you accountable under current legislation. It is easy and quick to check, which helps towards a safer building and, in the event of a fire, stronger defence having acted with due diligence,” says Stephen Adams, Chief Executive – BAFE.
Matt Gantley, CEO – UKAS, comments: “UKAS is delighted to see this important initiative from BAFE and we offer it our full support. Accredited third-party certification of fire safety services is an essential element of fulfilling statutory obligations. UKAS is the only Accreditation Body recognised by the UK Government and BAFE has always shown great commitment to meeting this “gold standard”.
UKAS Accredited Third Party Certification within the fire industry at present is completely voluntary. This means that any provider who holds this has taken intentional steps to gain independently assessed certification, demonstrating their competency for a specific service. BAFE argues that you wouldn’t use an unregistered gas engineer, so why should your fire safety requirements be treated any differently?
BAFE highlights it continues to promote to the public, specifiers and end users of the fire safety industry on the value of Third Party Certification in the interest of life and building safety. The culture of chasing the lowest quote for fire safety work must end, focusing instead on sourcing competent, independently assessed providers to get the job done right, the organisation highlights. As with most things, quality comes at a cost, but the cost of a fire with poor fire safety management could be far more disastrous.
Find out more about the ‘Don’t just specify, verify!’ campaign.
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Having just been involved with a project in which it was specified that both the doors to be installed and the installers were third party accredited, I am now of the opinion that third party accreditation does not work for the end user. Rather it is there to protect the companies that pay the third party accreditors. At the moment, if an end user has any concerns regarding the quality of either the workmanship or the products going into their premises they can’t go to the accreditation companies and ask them to verify that the work/product is meeting their standards… Read more »