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IFE Register of Fire Risk Assessors & Auditors

What is it?

The IFE has created a Register of Fire Risk Assessors and Auditors to assist employers, building owners and managers to source appropriately skilled consultants to help them meet the requirements of current and forthcoming legislation.

The link provides an opportunity to search for registered assessors by name, company, postcode or stream. Please read the important information provided in the Clauses for Clients/Users the conditions of which must be accepted before progressing to the search function. Search Register

Changes to Fire Safety Law

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) comes into force on 1st October 2006, extending the range of occupancies across England and Wales that will need to become familiar with the concept of fire risk assessment.

The new legislation will simplify and bring together a wide range of existing fire safety regulations, though the requirement for businesses to have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment carried out, by a competent person, will still remain. Legal responsibility for carrying out a risk assessment will rest with the 'responsible person', who will usually be the employer or may be a manager of an activity in a building.

As legislation is unclear on the competency of the fire risk assessor, the responsible person will need to decide whether they, or a member of staff, have the necessary knowledge and experience to carry out a fire risk assessment in-house or whether external assistance will be required.

How can the IFE help?

The fire risk assessment consultancy market is likely to become saturated with people having varying degrees of skill and knowledge, so how can employers, who are still ultimately responsible for the fire risk assessment, ensure that their choice of consultant is a good one? In this potential minefield, The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) has created a Register of Fire Risk Assessors and Auditors. It was appropriate for the IFE, as the leading professional body in the field of fire, to take this initiative to ensure that anyone having need of the services of a fire risk assessor can refer to the Register and thereby verify the credentials of their choice of assessor.

David Bonnett (Chairman of the Fire Industry Confederation) states: "We encourage the development of third party certification schemes to provide businesses with peace of mind that they are choosing a competent supplier. The rapidly growing fire risk assessment consultancy market is unregulated and confusing for buyers - this is a potentially dangerous situation, as incorrect advice may be given by unqualified consultants. The IFE register is a step towards defining the competence of fire risk assessment consultants to alleviate this situation".

Please refer to the following document which provides information on Selecting a competent Fire Risk Assessor

Who can apply?

Members and non members of the Institution may be registered; the only prerequisite is that each applicant is able to demonstrate to a Professional Review Panel that they have suitable education, training, and experience in the principles of fire safety and fire risk assessment and this involves submitting examples of their work for evaluation.

The Register also provides information about the scope of risk assessment being offered; 'Life Safety', 'Property Protection' and 'Business Interruption and it also has an Auditor section for registered members of the regulatory authorities".

An IFE spokesman says... "the uncertainty that will almost certainly arise with the introduction of the RRO and the abolition of fire certificates, makes it more crucial than ever before that professional fire risk assessment services can be relied upon to comply properly with the law and provide management with the best possible fire safety advise and guidance."

Fire Risk Assessment Training Courses

Approved Fire Risk Assessment Training courses for the purpose of the Fire Risk Assessors and Auditors Register are listed below:

To apply for Fire Risk Assessment Training Course Approval please click here.

How to apply

The links below provide all the information you should require in order to make an application for Registration. Please read the Guidance Notes and review the application process flowchart carefully. Should, however, you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

For an Application Form please click here.

For the Guidance Notes for applicants please click here.

Guidance for CEng and IEng applicants when completing the Application Form