The housing industry needs a register of certified fire risk assessors, according to an expert at housing association Peabody.
Assistant director of facilities and safety at the body, Roslyn Perkins, said that it can be very difficult for the industry to measure and check the competency of those in charge of assessing fire safety.
She made her comments at a fire safety conference organised by Peabody and London Fire Brigade last month.
The conference, Social Housing and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order – Exploring Solutions to Comply, was geared towards social housing providers to bring them up-to-date with the latest legislation.
But efforts to comply were hindered by the lack of a register of qualified consultants, as well as directives to monitor them, she said.
It follows similar comments made at the Firex North conference earlier this year by Nick Coombe of the Chief of the Fire Officers Association, who said that government guidance on compliance was not enough. He added that all of the stakeholders on the fire risk assessment competency council agreed the need for a unified set of standards and a single register for fire risk assessors.
Speaking at the same event, Simon Ince of Warrington Certification – which sells a risk assessor scheme – said that fire risk assessors should be “selling competence not compliance”.
