A fire risk assessment that says what it is.

Section 01How to do it

1. 01

   Describe the premises once

   Type, country, height, storeys, construction and evacuation strategy, with the responsible persons who hold the duty. The type sets the standard and the country sets the law, so neither is worth guessing.

2. 02

   Write the scope before you walk it

   What is included, what is excluded, what could not be accessed and why. A reader who cannot tell what was assessed cannot rely on what the assessment says.

3. 03

   Capture section by section

   Answer what applies and say so when a question does not — a blank reads as unassessed. Record a finding outside your competence as exactly that, rather than leaving it out.

4. 04

   Rate the risk yourself

   The matrix shows what your likelihood and consequence produce. The rating is yours; where you depart from the matrix, write down why, because that sentence is what a reviewer reads.

5. 05

   Give every shortcoming an action

   A justification, a priority band and a photograph. A finding outside your competence still takes an action — somebody has to obtain the specialist view.

6. 06

   Issue it, then revise rather than edit

   The readiness panel lists what stands between the assessment and issue. Once issued it is locked; a change is a new version that supersedes it.

7. 07

   Set the review date deliberately

   There is no default period, so the date reflects the premises rather than a habit. The client reads the issued assessment and downloads the same PDF in their portal.

Section 02What the app actually does here

• The premises type sets the standard — BS 9792:2025 for housing, PAS 79-1:2020 for non-domestic premises, both for mixed use — so an assessment cannot be written to the wrong one
• BS 9792:2025 assessment types 1 to 4 can be chosen, with the scope of each type written out
• Premises in England and Wales can be assessed, with the England-only duties hidden for a building in Wales
• Capture runs through fifteen sections, saved as you go, with questions shown only where the facts of the building make them relevant
• Every judgement is recorded as satisfactory, improvement required, not satisfactory, not applicable, not inspected or outside your competence
• Your own 3×3 or 5×5 risk matrix shows what a likelihood and a consequence produce; the assessor enters the final rating and records why wherever it differs
• Every shortcoming takes an action banded Immediate, High, Medium or Low, and issue is refused while one has no action, no band or no photograph
• An issued report is locked; a revision supersedes it and the earlier version stays on the record as it was
• The assessor sets the review date — there is no default period — and a review carries forward what the last assessment left open
• Answers and photographs can be captured without signal; creating the premises and issuing need a connection

Section 03What goes wrong

Every one of these has cost somebody real time. They are cheap to avoid and expensive to unwind.

Section 04Questions

Section 05Related