A fire risk assessment is a documented evaluation of fire hazards, persons at risk, and the controls in place to manage them, carried out under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It is a legal requirement for every non-domestic premises in England and Wales — small offices included — and since 1 October 2023 must be recorded in full (not just significant findings) whatever the number of employees, under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022.
A fire risk assessment is the legal foundation of fire safety in any non-domestic premises in England and Wales. RiskSorted assessors are aligned to BS 8674:2025 competence tiers (Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced) and produce reports to PAS 79-1:2020 for non-housing premises or BS 9792:2025 for housing premises. All assessors carry minimum £2m Professional Indemnity insurance and are matched to your building at the appropriate competence tier — Foundation for low-risk simple premises, Intermediate for moderate complexity, Advanced for high-risk and complex multi-occupancy buildings. Reports include prioritised action plans and review dates.
Systematic identification of fire hazards (sources of ignition, fuel and oxygen), evaluation of persons at risk (employees, visitors, vulnerable occupants), review of existing fire safety measures (means of escape, fire detection and warning, fire-fighting equipment, emergency lighting, fire signs and notices, compartmentation), and a prioritised action plan with realistic timescales. Where the building falls under the Fire Safety Act 2021 (multi-occupied residential), the assessment also covers external walls, flat entrance doors and structural compartmentation.
A full PAS 79-1:2020 or BS 9792:2025 fire risk assessment report, prioritised action plan with high/medium/low risk categorisation and timescales, fire safety arrangements documentation as required under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, certificate signed by your assessor, and automatic re-assessment reminders. All records stored in your RiskSorted account for audit, insurance, and regulatory inspection. Where required, a Personal Centred Fire Risk Assessment (PCFRA) addendum is provided for premises with vulnerable occupants.
The price moves with what kind of place it is, how many floors your business uses and the size of the biggest floor. Whether anyone sleeps there overnight matters most, because hotels, guest houses, care homes and HMOs need a higher tier of assessor. Access to plant rooms and locked areas, and visits outside normal working hours, also move the price. Where a building needs a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls under PAS 9980:2022, that is a separate specialist assessment and is priced on its own.
We give you a fixed price before anything is booked. The quickest way to get one is a free health and safety check of the premises.
We are the contractor. We hold the contract with you, we set the standard, and we stand behind the work. The assessor who attends is an accredited local specialist we have checked for qualifications, insurance and competence tier. They answer to us, not to you. If something goes wrong you ring us.
We only ask questions you can answer. What kind of place it is. How many floors. Whether anyone sleeps there. If an office manager or a business owner would not know the answer off the top of their head, we work it out on site. You should not need to understand BS 5839 categories to buy fire safety.
No disruption to the work itself. The assessor walks the whole building, so someone who knows the place should be free for an hour or so. We need access to plant rooms, risers and anywhere normally locked.
We tell you this before anything is booked, not when the assessor is already on site. If the timing does not work for you, say so. We ask what will not work rather than what you would prefer, so we can schedule around your business.
| Assessor competence framework | BS 8674:2025 Foundation, Intermediate, or Advanced — matched to building risk |
| Insurance requirement | Minimum £2m Professional Indemnity |
| Report standard (non-housing) | PAS 79-1:2020 |
| Report standard (housing) | BS 9792:2025 (replaced PAS 79-2:2020) |
| Average site duration | 2 to 8 hours depending on premises size and BS 8674 tier |
| Certificate format | Branded PDF report with full Section 156 record, stored in your RiskSorted account |
| Review reminder | 60 and 30 days before review date — automatic |
Fire risk assessment in England and Wales sits within a layered legal framework that has been substantially rewritten since the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017. The foundation is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the RRFSO or Fire Safety Order), which placed the legal duty for fire safety in non-domestic premises on the "Responsible Person" — typically the employer, building owner, or person in control of the premises. The Fire Safety Order requires the Responsible Person to make a "suitable and sufficient" assessment of fire risk and to keep that assessment under review.
The Fire Safety Act 2021 amended the Fire Safety Order to clarify that, for buildings containing two or more domestic premises, the Responsible Person's duty extends to external walls (including cladding, balconies and external fittings), structural compartmentation, and individual flat entrance doors. This closed a long-recognised gap in the original Order — the cladding crisis exposed by Grenfell could not be properly addressed until external walls were explicitly within scope.
Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, which came into force on 1 October 2023, made three further changes that materially affect every commercial FRA in the country. First, all premises must record their fire risk assessment in full, not just the "significant findings" as previously. Second, Responsible Persons must record their fire safety arrangements (the practical implementation of the FRA findings). Third, Section 156(4) requires that Responsible Persons must not appoint anyone to carry out the FRA unless that person is competent to do so — and must satisfy themselves of that competence before appointment.
Section 156(4) was the trigger for the publication of BS 8674:2025 Built Environment — Framework for Competence of Individual Fire Risk Assessors — Code of Practice on 15 August 2025. BS 8674 fills a long-standing gap in UK fire safety: it provides, for the first time, a structured competence framework that Responsible Persons can use to verify whether a prospective assessor is appropriate for their building. The standard defines three competence tiers — Foundation, Intermediate, and Advanced — each matched to a category of building risk and complexity.
Alongside BS 8674, two methodology standards govern how the assessment itself is conducted. PAS 79-1:2020 is the methodology for non-housing premises — offices, shops, factories, hospitality, healthcare, education. BS 9792:2025, published in August 2025, replaced PAS 79-2:2020 as the methodology for housing premises — HMOs, blocks of flats, student accommodation, specialised housing. The two standards align in approach but reflect the different risk profiles of housing and non-housing buildings. Where vulnerable occupants are present, a Personal Centred Fire Risk Assessment (PCFRA) addendum is incorporated under the BS 9792:2025 framework.
The three BS 8674:2025 tiers map approximately as follows:
BS 8674:2025 is explicit that assessors must not work beyond their competence tier. Section 156(4) of the Building Safety Act 2022 makes appointing an under-qualified assessor a regulatory failure on the part of the Responsible Person — the legal duty is to verify competence, not to take the assessor's word for it. This is why RiskSorted's matching logic respects competence tier: a Foundation-tier assessor will not be matched to an 18m+ residential block; an Advanced-tier assessor will not be wasted on a small office.
Every assessor in the RiskSorted network is verified to BS 8674:2025 competence framework before their first booking. Verification includes:
When you book a fire risk assessment through RiskSorted, the booking is matched to an assessor with the appropriate BS 8674 tier for your building, the closest postcode to your premises, current insurance, and capacity in your timeframe. The matching is done by RiskSorted, not by the assessor — meaning you don't end up with an over-tier assessor charging premium rates for a simple job, or an under-tier assessor handling a complex building they're not competent for. Verification is repeated annually; assessors whose insurance or competence evidence lapses are removed from the matching pool until renewed.
Fire risk assessments are unusual in the compliance world because the consequences of poor work are catastrophic and well-documented. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report, published in September 2024, identified competence gaps among fire risk assessors as a contributing factor to the regulatory failures preceding the fire. The post-Grenfell legislative response — Fire Safety Act 2021, Building Safety Act 2022, BS 8674:2025 — exists specifically because the previous self-regulating market for FRA competence was inadequate.
The practical impact for buyers is significant. A fire risk assessment that fails to identify a genuine risk doesn't show up as a problem at the point of delivery — it shows up after a fire, in an enforcement action, or during a building safety case audit. By the time the assessment's inadequacies are visible, the consequences are already in motion. This is why Section 156(4) places the legal duty for verifying assessor competence on the Responsible Person, not on the assessor's professional body, not on the regulator, and not on any booking platform.
RiskSorted's role is to make that verification practical. We do the BS 8674:2025 tier matching, the insurance verification, the qualification confirmation, and the reference checking — but the legal duty under Section 156(4) remains with you as the Responsible Person. Our verification is the documented evidence you can rely on to demonstrate that you've discharged that duty. Every booking comes with an audit trail showing the assessor's competence tier, qualifications, insurance, and verification date — so when an enforcement officer or insurer asks how you verified competence, you have a one-click answer.
Every booking through RiskSorted supports a UK independent fire risk assessor or small specialist practice — not a national franchise applying generic templates to buildings they've never properly understood. Compliance spend stays in the UK communities where the buildings stand and the risks are real.
New to BS 8674:2025? Our plain-English guide explains what the standard means for you as the Responsible Person — the three competence tiers, how to tell which level your building needs, and how to verify an assessor. Read the BS 8674:2025 guide for duty holders.
Reviewed by RiskSorted's compliance team. RiskSorted's in-house team holds collective qualifications across NEBOSH General Certificate, IOSH Managing Safely, Fire Risk Assessment (PAS 79-1), and electrical compliance. All service guides are reviewed against current UK regulations and the latest editions of the relevant British and ACoP standards.
This page provides general guidance on UK compliance services and is not a substitute for professional advice. Specific compliance requirements should be confirmed with a qualified professional based on the particulars of your premises, business activities and applicable regulations.
Start with a free health and safety check of your premises. We show you what the fire officer and your insurer expect to see, and you keep the findings whether you use us or not. If you want a price, it is fixed before anything is booked.
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