London Fire Brigade: “Every day we see unsuitable fire risk assessments”

Andy Jack, Head of Regulatory Enforcement at London Fire Brigade spoke to a packed audience at FIREX 2017 about the inadequate fire risk assessments he sees “every day of the week”.

Taking pains to mention that he is not commenting on Grenfell Tower, which is currently under criminal investigation, Andy Jack spelled out the role of ‘responsible persons’ in fire risk assessment.

“It is twenty years since fire risk assessment came in and ten years since reg 38 (or 16B) packs were introduced but has it made any difference?” he asked the audience.

 

Responsible for what?

“The law spells out the needs for responsible persons, but responsible for what?”

Article 9 from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 explains that:

“The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of identifying the measures they need to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on them by the Order.”

However “the law doesn’t explain what responsible persons are responsible for and the ‘suitable and sufficient assessment’ in article 9 means, very broad” said Andy.

 

Are these fire risk assessments suitable and sufficient?

Andy Jack explained a number of assessments that, as an enforcer, he sees coming across his desk every day

There are many cases where the fire risk assessor did not go to all parts of the building e.g. a locked manager’s office or false ceilings, leaving areas of the building unchecked.It is common for assessors to ignore basements or top floors.

Excuses can range from difficulty accessing the building to safety, but “these things are are simply wrong.”

In other cases, Andy sees assessors completely misconstruing what building is made of

“The assessment tells us that the premises are of brick and concrete constructuion, when it’s actually made from timber frame with studwork.”

 

“Too often Fire Information Packs don’t get passed to the fire risk assessor who is missing out on a whole wealth of information”.

 

What have London Fire Brigade have learned?

It is clear there is an inconsistent views on who is responsible and liable for fire risk assessments but “you can’t get rid of the duty, you can’t saw it’s nothing to do with you,  or to mitigate your responsibility”.

Co-operation and co-ordination between the responsible person and their fire risk assessor is often  is not all it might be and causing problems.

Jack’s advice to the industry is:

“Get co-operation working to get a better fire risk assessment, reduce risk to relevant persons, and reduce risk of litigation from the likes of me. I’d rather I didn’t have to do it at all, to be honest. There are plenty of things I’d much rather do with my time than litigating.”