FRA FAQ
Yes. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer and self-employed person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of workplace risks. Fire risk assessment is a separate, parallel duty under fire safety law.
The general duty
Regulation 3 covers far more than staff: visitors, contractors, residents and neighbours all count if the undertaking puts them at risk. The assessment must be revisited when there is reason to think it is no longer valid, and employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings. Whoever carries it out must be a competent person for the risks involved, which for routine office hazards can be a capable manager. The depth has to be proportionate too: a low-risk office needs far less analysis than a factory floor or a care setting.
On top of the general duty, specific regulations demand their own assessments: hazardous substances under COSHH, manual handling, display screen equipment, noise and vibration among them. Each is the same method pointed at a particular hazard. The method itself is set out in what are the 5 steps of risk assessment, and the competence question in can anybody write a risk assessment.
Fire stands apart
Parliament carved fire out of the general regime. In England and Wales the Fire Safety Order 2005 requires the responsible person to make a fire-specific assessment, and its reach is wider than employment: it captures premises with no employees at all, including the common parts of blocks of flats. The full fire duty is set out in is it a legal requirement to have a fire risk assessment.
The recording rules have diverged as well. The five-or-more-employees threshold still governs general health and safety records, but for fire it was abolished by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022: since 1 October 2023 every fire risk assessment must be recorded in full. Enforcement differs too, with the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities policing the general duty while fire and rescue authorities police fire.
FAQ
Only once you have five or more employees, at which point the significant findings must be recorded. Fire is stricter: the whole fire risk assessment must be written down regardless of headcount. In practice a written record is the only convincing evidence an assessment happened, so recording it is sensible at any size.
Yes, if you are competent for the risks involved: the law regulates the quality of the assessment, not the job title of its author. Can I do a risk assessment myself sets out where self-assessment is defensible and where specialist help becomes the safer choice.
Usually not. They answer different questions for different regulators, and a combined document tends to shortchange one side. Most organisations keep a general workplace risk assessment alongside a dedicated fire risk assessment, cross-referring where the two overlap, such as evacuation planning for staff with mobility needs.
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