How Often Should a Fire Risk Assessment Be Reviewed?

 Short answer: there's no fixed number of months written into law. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 just says it has to be kept under review and updated when it's no longer valid. In practice, that works out to roughly once a year for most properties, plus straight away whenever something changes.


WHAT THE LAW ACTUALLY SAYS


The RRO 2005 doesn't set a review deadline like "every 12 months." It focuses on the assessment staying accurate rather than ticking a calendar date. The person responsible for the property has to keep it under review and update it if it stops reflecting reality, whenever that happens to be.


WHAT TRIGGERS AN EARLIER REVIEW


A few things mean you shouldn't wait for the anniversary date: the building's layout or structure has changed, who's using the building or how many people has changed, a new fire hazard has turned up, there's been a fire or a near miss, or something in the original assessment (a fire door, an alarm system, an escape route) has been altered or has stopped working properly.


WHY ANNUAL IS THE PRACTICAL ANSWER ANYWAY


Even though the law doesn't demand it, reviewing yearly is the standard most assessors and insurers work to, and for good reason. It gives you a paper trail showing you're actually keeping on top of it, it catches the kind of slow deterioration that's easy to miss day to day (a fire door that's stopped closing properly, signage that's faded), and it's the evidence you want in hand if an inspector ever asks. Lower risk properties where nothing's changed can sometimes stretch that out, but if you're not sure, annual is the safe default.


WHO'S ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS


Whoever is the "responsible person" under the Order, usually the employer, building owner, or landlord, is accountable for making sure reviews happen and stay current. You can pay someone else to do the assessment itself, but the legal duty to keep it under review doesn't transfer to them.


GETTING A REVIEW DONE


Review timing only matters if the assessment itself was done properly in the first place. It’s worth reading what actually gets checked in a proper fire risk assessment and, if yours has lapsed, what actually happens if you don’t have one at all.

If your fire risk assessment is coming up on a year old, or something at the property has changed since it was written, I review and update fire risk assessments for UK properties and businesses. You can see what's included here.

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