Fire Risk Assessments: Legal Requirements

### The Fire Safety Order In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the Responsible Person to ensure that a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment is carried out for premises within scope. The Responsible Person is determined by control and legal responsibility for the premises — not always the business owner. ### Recording Duties (Post-October 2023) Following Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, Responsible Persons within scope must record their fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements in full — regardless of the number of employees. The older guidance that written recording only applies where there are five or more employees no longer reflects fire safety law. ### Scotland and Northern Ireland Different fire safety legislation applies in Scotland (the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and associated regulations) and Northern Ireland (the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010). Organisations operating across the UK must apply the correct legislation for each premises. ### Review Triggers A fire risk assessment must be reviewed regularly and whenever change triggers apply — not automatically on a fixed annual expiry. We record the actual review recommendation.