Policy paper

Fire Safety Act 2021 factsheet: The Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool

Updated 24 February 2023

Overview - The purpose of this fact sheet

This fact sheet is not guidance issued under article 50 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) and should not be read as such. It is intended to provide summary information about the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool.

The Fire Safety Act

Section one of the Fire Safety Act amends the FSO to clarify that fire risk assessments for all multi-occupied residential buildings should be updated to include structure, external walls and flat entrance doors.

Updating fire risk assessments

Fire risk assessments by Responsible Persons should be updated as quickly as practicable to include an assessment of the building’s external walls.

In some cases, a more detailed fire risk appraisal of the external walls (under PAS 9980) will be required. In such circumstances the Responsible Person will need to engage a competent professional to carry out this work (see also the separate fact sheet on on the commencement of sections 1 and 3 of the Fire Safety Act concerning circumstances where a PAS 9980 appraisal may not be required).

It is recognised that the capacity of competent professionals, who can be commissioned by Responsible Persons to conduct fire risk appraisals of the external walls is limited. This means that the updating of fire risk assessments needs to be prioritised to ensure that the resources of competent professionals are focussed first on buildings where there may be greater fire safety concerns.

The Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool

The Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool is an online tool developed by the government, with input from the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Fire Sector Federation and several housing organisations and local authorities. Its purpose is to support Responsible Persons to develop a prioritisation strategy for updating their fire risk assessments following commencement of section one of the Fire Safety Act 2021.

The prioritisation tool is not designed to be a risk rating tool to determine whether a building is safe or unsafe. It is not a replacement for a fire risk assessment.

Use of the prioritisation tool is encouraged but is not mandatory. Some Responsible Persons would have already updated their fire risk assessments to include their external walls and flat entrance doors. Others will have their own system of prioritising the buildings that they are responsible for.

Use of the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool

The prioritisation tool should only be used by Responsible Persons. This is very important as only Responsible Persons have the legal obligation under the Fire Safety Order to carry out the fire risk assessment.

How the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool works

The prioritisation tool takes Responsible Persons through a series of fire safety related questions about a building. This information is then scored to assist them to determine the priority of their buildings for updating their fire risk assessments. Further information on the prioritisation tool is contained in the Fire Safety Act Commencement: prioritisation guidance

High priority ratings under the prioritisation tool

A high priority rating from the prioritisation tool does not mean that the building is at greater risk of a fire breaking out and is not an indication that the building is dangerous to live in. It is the outcomes from the fire risk assessment itself that may require further action to address fire safety defects.

However, a tier 1 (Very High) or tier 2 (High) will advise the Responsible Person to take action to update the fire risk assessment immediately (for tier 1) or as soon as practically possible (for tier 2).

Inclusion of ‘don’t know’ responses to questions within the prioritisation tool

The questionnaire contains ‘don’t know’ responses to a very limited number of questions. These questions relate to technical information about the materials which could make up the external wall system (or windows) on a building which may not be readily available to the Responsible Person when they use the prioritisation tool.

It is worth noting that answering ‘don’t know’ will automatically provide the highest score for this question. So, for the most accurate results it is recommended you gather the correct information wherever possible.