The plan and the assessment
The two documents do different jobs. The fire risk assessment identifies the hazards in your building, the people at risk and the precautions needed. The fire safety plan is how those precautions are run: the procedures, the people and the routines that keep them working between one assessment and the next.
Without a plan, an assessment’s recommendations tend to stay on paper. Nobody is named to test the alarm, the evacuation procedure lives in one person’s head, and contractors start hot works without anyone checking.
Already have a fire risk assessment?
Your legal duty
Article 11 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to put in place arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the building’s fire precautions, and to record them. Since October 2023 that record has been required whatever the size of the business.
Residential buildings
In buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 add duties to give residents fire safety instructions and information about fire doors. A fire safety plan is the natural place to set out how those duties are met.
What our fire safety plans cover
Every plan is written for your premises and the way they are used, but most cover:
- Evacuation The evacuation strategy, escape routes, assembly points and personal emergency evacuation plans for anyone who needs help to leave.
- People Who is responsible for what, the fire marshals or wardens, and who calls the fire service.
- Testing and maintenance What is tested and how often, from the alarm and emergency lighting to fire doors and extinguishers, and who records it.
- Managing change Arrangements for contractors, hot works permits, visitors and alterations that could affect the building’s fire precautions.
- Training and drills How staff are instructed, how often drills run and how the results are acted on.
Keeping it current
A fire safety plan is a working document. It needs reviewing when the fire risk assessment is reviewed, when the building or the way it is used changes, and after any fire or near miss. We can review the plan alongside your fire risk assessment, so the two never drift apart.
For new and altered buildings, the plan should also reflect the building’s fire strategy, so the way the building is run matches the way it was designed to work in a fire.
Put your fire safety arrangements in writing
Tell us about your building, who uses it and what your fire risk assessment says, and we will write a plan your team can follow. Call us, send a message or drop us an email, and we will come back to you, usually the same working day.