FRA FAQ
The five things a risk assessment should include are: a description of the activity or premises assessed; the hazards identified; who might be harmed and how; the evaluation of the risks with existing and planned controls; and the author, date and review arrangements. These are the contents of the record, distinct from the five steps of the method.
The record
First, the description: which premises, activity or task the assessment covers, and, as usefully, what it excludes, so nobody assumes protection that does not exist. Second, the hazards, specific and located: "cardboard stored against the electrical intake in the ground floor riser" does work that "combustible storage" never will. Third, the people who might be harmed and how, set out as groups, because a control that protects able-bodied staff may do nothing for a resident who cannot manage stairs.
Fourth, the evaluation and controls: for each hazard, how likely the harm is, how serious it would be, what already limits it and what more is planned, with an owner and a date against every planned action. Fifth, the spine: who wrote the assessment, when they wrote it, and when and under what circumstances it will be reviewed. That final line turns a static document into a managed one, and leaving it off is among the common mistakes in risk assessments.
Fire raises the bar
For general workplace assessments the duty to write down significant findings applies where five or more people are employed. Fire is stricter. Since Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, every fire risk assessment must be recorded in full, however small the organisation, and the record must identify whoever carried it out. The five contents above still apply; fire simply deepens each one, from hazards organised around ignition, fuel and oxygen to an evaluation that covers escape, detection, doors and compartmentation.
The fire-specific document is walked section by section under what should a fire risk assessment include, and for housing BS 9792:2025 standardises the report format. Whoever holds the pen, the content must reflect the judgement of a competent person, and can I write my own risk assessment covers when drafting it yourself is defensible and when it is not.
FAQ
The Health and Safety Executive publishes example assessments and a template built around essentially these fields, and sector bodies adapt them freely. No particular format is mandatory; the law judges content, not layout. Any document that captures the five contents clearly and stays current will serve.
Specific enough that someone who never attended the walkthrough could find the hazard and check whether the control happened. Location, what it is and why it matters is a reliable pattern. Generic lines copied from a template are the fastest route to a record that fails when it is tested against the building.
The person who carried out the assessment, and for fire the record must identify them by law. Where organisations split fieldwork from approval, the reviewer signs too. Who fills out the risk assessment form covers how author, reviewer and responsible person share the task.
FRA Flow drafts findings with location, evidence and reasoning built in, then routes the document to a named reviewer for sign-off. Free tier available.
