If you’re a landlord, business owner, or managing agent in the UK, there are many reasons you need to be on top of your record keeping from a fire safety and compliance perspective.
Alex MacArthur, director at North West Fire Solutions, explains what these reasons are, where people go wrong, and how you can optimise your record keeping moving forward.
Why is record keeping so important, and what are the potential consequences of noncompliance?
Staying on top of your fire safety is a legal requirement. Keeping up-to-date records and managing the fire safety risks on your premises will put you in the strongest possible position in the event of a fire.
As unlikely as it is to happen, you can never say never, and if you were to end up in court, these records would serve as your defence. That’s why you can’t be remiss when it comes to record keeping or overlook anything that could prove vital further down the line.
What information needs to be documented to demonstrate compliance with the relevant fire safety regulations?
There are several key documents you need to keep track of. The first, and most obvious, is your fire risk assessment.
You must have this document to hand for a number of reasons.
Lots of different people may need it, and not just for the purpose of fire safety but also, for example, when buying or selling a property (particularly flats).
And let’s not forget, a written fire risk assessment is mandatory for all premises, regardless of size or number of employees — even if you’re a sole trader.
The document should clearly state who carried out the fire risk assessment, as well as details of the responsible person. Keeping this information together with the assessment is good practice.
Other information that should be documented
- If your responsibility for fire safety is shared with other responsible persons in a building, it’s essential that you document this relationship in some way, laying out the terms of who’s responsible for what.
- You must keep your servicing records up to date. It will make your life so much easier if you’ve got the relevant paperwork to hand should the worst happen.
- If you have staff on-site, keep a record of all the training and fire drills that you put them through, i.e., induction training, fire extinguisher training, and fire marshal training.
- If you manage a high-rise or residential building, you need an information box containing floor plans, records of monthly checks, details of firefighting lifts and equipment, and external wall information.
- If you’ve been involved in a building project or conversion, you should keep handover documents, including anything relating to Regulation 38, such as fire strategy reports and any other plans detailing electrical works.
Whilst you should have paper copies of these documents, it’s sensible to keep them in some kind of backed-up digital format as well.
What are the benefits of storing all fire safety records on a digital platform?
You can store all your records centrally online and you have peace of mind knowing they’re safe and secure. An online platform is a single source of truth.
You don’t have to worry about documents being misplaced or going missing. You have greater version control and an audit trail which you can refer to if required.
It’s easy for you to share documentation with any other responsible persons or third party who needs to see that information, such as a fire risk assessor.
If there’s a fire or power outage, you should still be able to access that data via a phone, laptop, or tablet.
You also don’t want boxes of paper records lying around that could be damaged, destroyed, or lost in a fire, so having secure digital copies is the way to go.
There’s nothing wrong with a hybrid setup whereby you have everything stored digitally but keep hard copies where they’re useful.
Maybe you could have policies and procedures and instructions laid out, or you could post information through flat doors and hand out paper copies to people as well as circulating emails.
In the event of a fire, the fire and rescue service may not be able to access your digital system, so keeping key documents together in a secure box in an accessible location can still be the most practical option sometimes.
How can specific types of records serve as evidence of fire safety compliance?
Having a fire risk assessment with a clear action plan demonstrates due diligence and shows that your decisions are risk-based as opposed to plucking things out of thin air.
By appointing a competent fire risk assessor, you can identify what needs to be done, where the gaps are in your fire safety, and ensure your actions are properly thought through.
Carrying out regular tests, such as weekly fire alarm tests and monthly emergency light tests, provides evidence that maintenance is being done. It might sound basic, but this kind of record keeping is massively important.
The same applies to training drills. Even if you’ve missed one or two and there are gaps in your records, at least you demonstrated that you’ve done something. It’s better than nothing.
Keeping your floor plans up to date, recording any building changes, and making sure you keep pace with legal requirements is essential.
For example, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 introduced new duties, so you need to show how these changes have been understood, incorporated into your fire safety procedures, and acted upon.
Ultimately, if you’ve got the paperwork and the details to back it up, you have a good case if something does go wrong.
What are some common misconceptions regarding record keeping for fire safety compliance?
Historically, businesses with fewer than five employees didn’t need to write anything down when it came to health and safety, including fire safety. That’s changed now.
Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 states that all businesses must complete and record a fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements. So, if you’re a responsible person for any premises, it doesn’t matter how big your business is or how many staff you have. You need to have it all written down.
Your fire risk assessment needs to be a proper, formal document — whether that’s a hard copy or digital file — which lays out your arrangements, policies, procedures, and records. Everything has to be there. It’s not something you can just keep in your head anymore.
This recent change has affected hundreds, if not thousands, of people who’ve been compliant for years and are suddenly noncompliant, simply because they’ve never had to keep these records and now they do.
Another misconception that we see quite often is people failing to understand the role of the fire risk assessor or contractor that they’re working with.
Some people assume the fire risk assessor, electrical contractor, or other third party will keep everything. In reality, the responsible person must hold all the documentation. The buck stops with them.
A lot of the time, responsible persons will say they’ve had their systems checked, maintained, serviced, and tested, and they’ve had training and fire drills, but there’s no record of this. They think they’ve done the right thing, but without evidence, it’s very hard to prove that any of this has happened.
What oversights do people make when it comes to record keeping for fire safety compliance?
There’s often an oversight around the sharing of information between responsible persons in multi-occupied buildings.
For example, in our own serviced offices, we must share our fire risk assessment with the landlord so they can identify any potential risks between neighbouring tenants.
It’s all too easy to think, ‘We’ve done our bit, we’re okay.’ But it’s not — you’re part of a bigger picture. That’s why responsible persons must share information where required.
Another big mistake we see people make is not tracking everything they’ve done after receiving their fire risk assessment.
Let’s say you have a faulty alarm system, but you don’t have a designated contractor to fix it for you. If you ring three companies to get quotes, you need to keep a record of who you’ve called and when, and note that you’re waiting on a quote if you don’t get a response.
For all you know, there could be a fire on your premises that day. If there was, you’d have proof that you made phone calls to the relevant people, in the form of call logs. It may sound over the top, but you never know when you could require this information.
The other major oversight we see people make is lapsed maintenance.
It’s very easy for checks to slip, even if you’re out by a week or a month, but maintenance schedules are there for a reason, so it’s important to stick to them.
If you’re unable to do this yourself due to time constraints, it’s worth bringing in a facilities management or block management company to help you.
What specific information should be recorded when carrying out a fire risk assessment?
There are a few things you need to include when you’re doing a fire risk assessment.
You should have a document that clearly sets out the scope of the assessment and states its purpose. It must describe the premises, including an occupancy profile (i.e., how the building is used) and basic building information such as the structure, what the external walls are made of, any common parts, how many storeys it has, and so on.
The risk assessment itself must outline all the different areas relating to fire safety, the full findings, and the risk evaluation.
From here, you should create an owner-named action plan, with deadlines for when each action and review triggers if required.
Also, make sure you include the identity of the assessor or the organisation and the responsible person with contact details and addresses.
And then, of course, if you’ve got evidence of risk assessor competence, that’s always worth documenting. This means if anyone is scrutinising your report, they can see straight away that this person has the appropriate credentials to carry out a fire risk assessment.
Where possible, link to supporting evidence, photographs or any other notes you think are relevant.
Finally, use the assessment summary section: it’s an opportunity for you to add any additional notes or context as to what you’ve found.
How can responsible persons stay on top of record keeping moving forward?
Responsible persons must understand what their building needs on a regular basis.
This might be things like:
- Weekly fire alarm testing
- Monthly emergency light testing
- Annual servicing of extinguishers
- Fire drills once or twice a year
By having a clear schedule from the off, you can keep track of everything much better and have greater control over your record keeping.
Maybe you can set automated reminders for yourself on your work calendar or using a project software tool like Asana or Monday.com.
I’ve seen instances where people have had a fire risk assessment and then effectively audited themselves each quarter to see where they’re at with the action plan.
They’ll ask themselves if they need to do anything else or look at fire safety in a different way, or whether anything has changed in the past three months. It may not sound like a long time, but a lot can change in just a few months.
As I’ve referenced already, keep a repository with backups of your fire safety information and make sure other people can access these files.
If you manage a multiple-occupancy building — whether that’s residential or commercial — you must ensure that contact details are reviewed on a regular basis, whether that’s every six months or every year, and that all details are up-to-date.
Ideally, at least one person on your premises should be designated to ensure records are up-to-date and compliance requirements are met. You should view record keeping in the same light as you would a fire alarm check, as the two are equally important.
How can we help organisations and managing agents with their record keeping?
Managing your fire safety records is deeply personal to you, and it’s not something we can do on your behalf.
But if you have any queries or concerns regarding your record keeping, or want to arrange for a professional fire risk assessment to get the ball rolling, feel free to reach out and we’ll happily have that conversation with you.
With a combined industry experience of approximately 250 years, we’re perfectly placed to advise you on all things fire safety.
You can arrange for us to attend your site by calling us on 0151 665 0124 or emailing info@nwfiresolutions.co.uk.