What does an audit examine?
There is an important difference between having fire-safety arrangements and being able to demonstrate that those arrangements are effective. A company may have a current Fire Risk Assessment, a fire-safety policy, Fire Wardens, a training programme, maintenance contractors and fire-door inspection records. But an important governance question remains: is the system actually working?
The scope should reflect the organisation, but an independent review may examine:
- Fire Risk Assessments
- FRA action plans
- Fire Safety Management Plans
- Fire-door records
- Alarm testing
- Emergency-lighting maintenance
- Extinguisher maintenance
- Training records
- Fire Warden coverage
- Fire-drill records
- Emergency procedures
- Contractor controls
- Defect-management systems
- Documentation
- Responsibilities
- Evidence of review
Government fire-safety guidance includes monitoring, audit and review within good management arrangements and stresses the importance of maintaining appropriate records.
An audit asks for evidence
Consider a statement such as: “Our fire doors are checked regularly.” An auditor may ask:
- Which doors?
- At what frequency?
- By whom?
- Where are the records?
- What defects were found?
- Who received the defect report?
- Were repairs completed?
- Was completion verified?
- Are any defects overdue?
That moves the discussion from assertion to evidence.
Auditing FRA actions
A useful audit can sample the action plan from the Fire Risk Assessment. For each action, ask:
- Was it allocated?
- Was a deadline established?
- Was it completed?
- Is evidence available?
- Was the outcome effective?
An action marked “complete” because somebody sent an email is not necessarily a controlled risk.
Audits can reveal systemic weaknesses
Examples might include:
- Different sites following different procedures
- Training overdue
- Insufficient Fire Warden cover
- Unclosed FRA actions
- Incomplete contractor documentation
- Fire-door defects repeatedly returning
- Poor version control
- Missing maintenance records
- Fire drills occurring without lessons being followed up
These are management issues as much as technical issues.
Fire Safety Audit versus Fire Risk Assessment
They are related, but they answer different questions. A Fire Risk Assessment asks what the fire hazards, risks and necessary precautions are. A Fire Safety Audit asks whether the organisation’s fire-safety arrangements are being implemented, controlled and evidenced effectively.
An audit does not normally replace the need for a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment.
Why independence can help
People working inside an organisation naturally become accustomed to its processes. An independent reviewer can approach the evidence without those assumptions and identify discrepancies between policy and practice.
The purpose should not be simply to find fault. A well-designed audit should identify good practice as well as opportunities for improvement.
Stanford Global Limited provides independent Fire Safety Audits designed to assess fire-safety governance, documentation, implementation and ongoing compliance arrangements.
