FRA FAQ
Yes, everywhere in the UK. England and Wales require one under the Fire Safety Order 2005, Scotland under Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, and Northern Ireland under the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. All three regimes demand a suitable and sufficient assessment.
Nation by nation
The labels differ. England and Wales place the duty on the responsible person. Scotland places broadly equivalent duties on dutyholders: employers, and anyone with control of relevant premises. Northern Ireland uses the appropriate person. In each case the role attaches to control of the building, so employers, occupiers, owners and managing agents are the usual candidates, and more than one person can hold duties over the same premises at once. A landlord with stock in Carlisle and Dumfries therefore answers to two different statutes for the same portfolio, even though the assessments themselves look almost identical.
Coverage is aligned in substance too: workplaces and other non-domestic premises are in scope everywhere, shared parts of residential buildings are covered, and the single private home sits outside the assessment duty in all four nations. Sleeping accommodation such as HMOs, hostels and care homes attracts the closest regulatory attention wherever in the UK it stands.
Where they diverge
The reforms that followed Grenfell landed unevenly. The Fire Safety Act 2021 and Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 amended the Order for England and Wales, and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added fire door checks and information duties in England only. Scotland and Northern Ireland pursued their own programmes on cladding and high-rise safety, so a portfolio that crosses borders needs each regime tracked separately.
Methodology, by contrast, has converged. PAS 79 shaped fire risk assessment practice UK-wide for two decades, and BS 9792:2025 now gives housing a dedicated code of practice that assessors apply regardless of nation. An assessment produced to a recognised methodology by a competent assessor satisfies the suitable and sufficient test under any of the three statutes. For a housing provider the practical consequence is procedural rather than technical: commission the same quality of assessment everywhere, then map the recording and notification duties nation by nation.
FAQ
No. Section 156 amends the Fire Safety Order, which extends to England and Wales, so the duty to record the whole assessment in full is an England and Wales change. Scottish and Northern Irish dutyholders should still keep written assessments as a matter of basic defensibility.
Not materially. The logic of identifying hazards and people at risk, evaluating precautions, recording and reviewing applies everywhere, and the same methodologies are used across the UK. The differences sit in the surrounding duties and guidance documents, not in how a competent assessor inspects a building.
The local fire and rescue authority in England and Wales, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. All of them audit premises, require improvements and prosecute; who is legally responsible for a risk assessment explains who they pursue.
FRA Flow turns on-site evidence into reviewer-signed fire risk assessment reports for UK housing. BS 9792-native, with a free tier to start.
