Fire risk assessments: how often must they be done?

There are no specific time periods in law for how often fire risk assessments must be carried out or reviewed. The law simply says that the person responsible for the assessment in your building must review it ‘regularly’ to make sure it’s up to date.

The responsible person must review the fire risk assessment if:

• there’s reason to think it’s no longer valid (for example, if there has been a fire in the shared parts of the building)
• there have been significant changes since the assessment was done (for example, major building works or more people using the building)

The assessment itself might also include a recommendation of how often it should be reviewed or updated. Reviewing an existing fire risk assessment can take less time than carrying out a new assessment, so reviews can be done more frequently.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has guidance on fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats. This recommends that for low-rise blocks of up to three storeys above ground, built in the last 20 years, fire risk assessments should be:

• reviewed every 2 years
• redone every 4 years

For blocks with higher risks (for example, because of the age of the building), or those more than 3 storeys high, the LGA recommends that fire risk assessments should be:

• reviewed every year
• redone every 3 years

In extreme cases (for the highest-risk buildings), the LGA recommends doing a new fire risk assessment once a year.