Guest Post: Why Third-Party Certification Matters In Fire
When you work in the fire and security sector, you hear a lot about competence. But it takes on a very different meaning when you suddenly become the person legally responsible for fire safety in your own building.
Last year, I became a Responsible Person as part of the Right to Manage (RTM) company for the block of flats where I live. Like many residential buildings, ours already had a Fire Risk Assessment in place. But it was three years old… and none of the residents had ever seen it or been told about the fire strategy relating to it. When we eventually obtained a copy as RTM directors, it raised more questions than it answered.
Before we could make any decisions about fire safety improvements, we realised we first needed a new Fire Risk Assessment carried out by someone appropriately qualified and experienced for the work involved. That’s when we encountered the challenge many Responsible Persons face. The responsibility is very clear. But the route to fulfilling it often isn’t.
The Responsible Person’s Dilemma
The legal duties placed on a Responsible Person are well defined. Demonstrating due diligence in fulfilling them is far less straightforward. As RTM directors, we believed we needed to appoint someone competent to carry out our Fire Risk Assessment for us. But once you start researching how to do that properly, the guidance can become confusing very quickly. You encounter references to qualifications, professional memberships, competency frameworks, third-party certification schemes, registers and accreditation bodies.
Navigating Confusing Signals
Our search started the way it does for many people: with Google. We searched for “local fire risk assessment” and began reviewing the websites of companies operating in our area. What we found was a confusing mix of logos, accreditations and professional memberships. Many sites displayed several badges, but very few explained what they actually meant. Almost every website said some version of the same thing:
“You can trust us. We’re compliant. We’re experts.”
But very few provided clear evidence to support those claims. For someone outside the fire safety industry, it wasn’t obvious which credentials applied to the individual assessor, which applied to the organisation or which involved independent third-party certification rather than professional membership alone. Without that context, the logos themselves didn’t provide much reassurance.
For a Responsible Person trying to make a defensible decision, what matters isn’t marketing language, it’s access to evidence relevant to assessing competence.
Understanding Competence as a Responsible Person
The challenge becomes even more important once you start looking at the legal responsibilities placed on Responsible Persons under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Expectations shift the question from:
“Does this company say they’re competent?” to something more meaningful: “What evidence is relevant to assessing competence?”
At that point we realised we were approaching the problem the wrong way. Instead of trying to interpret dozens of claims and logos on company websites, we needed to start with organisations that had already been subject to independent third-party assessment against recognised certification standards. Third-party certification schemes help provide that independent assessment. But certification should be viewed as part of a wider due diligence process, not a substitute for it. Important for us when selecting a provider were the following:
- understanding qualifications and experience
- confirming the scope of certification
- checking how competence is maintained and reviewed
- ensuring the assessor has experience relevant to the type of building involved
Third-party certification makes those checks significantly easier because it provides a structured framework and independent oversight.
Finding a practical way forward
What ultimately helped us move forward was using the public directories provided by certification bodies such as the NSI and BAFE. For fire risk assessment specifically, the relevant scheme is BAFE SP205. The NSI is one of the UKAS-accredited certification bodies that certifies organisations under this scheme. Rather than starting with marketing claims on individual websites, we could go to the NSI website and choose from a list of organisations whose competence had already been subject to independent third-party assessment against recognised standards. We could also refine the search to organisations operating locally to the building.
Those two things immediately narrowed the field and made the process far more manageable. Using that approach ultimately helped us identify and verify a locally based, third-party certified Fire Risk Assessment company. From there, we could review the qualifications of the individual fire risk assessors listed on the company’s website and verify those through the relevant online professional register.
From a Responsible Person’s perspective, that makes a huge difference. When you are legally accountable for fire safety decisions, the ability to independently verify certification through publicly searchable registers removes a huge amount of uncertainty from that process.
Why this matters
The experience reinforced something I had long believed professionally: Third-party certification is not just an industry badge or marketing logo. It is a practical tool that helps Responsible Persons make more informed and defensible decisions. But certification is only part of the picture.
Responsible Persons still need to carry out appropriate due diligence and satisfy themselves that those they appoint are suitable for the work involved. Because when you are legally accountable for fire safety decisions, confidence does not come from being told someone is competent. It comes from being able to verify the evidence that supports the claim.
About the Author
Jo Shaer is the founder of Lollipop Local, a specialist marketing consultancy for third-party certified fire and security companies. She is also a member of NSI’s Associate Consultancy Programme.
Once again, the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or views of NSI, its certified companies or any other affiliated organisations. No compensation was provided or exchanged in connection with this post.