Rsl09 - Fire risk management – Above Green

(4 credits)

Aim

To ensure a consistent baseline of fire risk assessment.

Question

Does the asset comply with all relevant fire regulations that apply to the asset?

Credits	Answer	Select answer option
0	A	Question not answered
0	B	No
0	C	Yes, and the regulations do not include a requirement to conduct a fire risk assessment.
0	D	Yes, and the regulations do include a requirement to conduct a fire risk assessment.

Where the relevant fire regulations do not include a requirement to conduct a fire risk assessment, has a fire risk assessment been carried out?

Credits	Answer	Select answer option
0	E	Question not answered
0	F	No
2	G	Yes, a fire risk assessment has been carried out.
2	H	There is a fire safety manager or other member of staff in place who manages, monitors and initiates reviews of the relevant procedures as identified in the fire risk assessment.

Assessment criteria

Criterion	Assessment criteria	Applicable answer
1	Filtering Where the asset complies with all relevant fire regulations and the fire risk assessment required meets the requirements in Assessment criteria 2 - 5, the credits for the issue will be filtered out of the assessment.	D
2	A fire risk assessment must be carried out on premises that are in use so that actual working conditions, practices and procedures can be taken into account. Risk assessments carried out at the design stage of new premises or to identify defects in fire precautions in newly constructed premises prior to occupation are not compliant.	C,D,G
3	A fire risk assessment must be carried out by a competent person.	C,D,G
4	A fire risk assessment should include all of the assessed area, and any associated access routes. It must explicitly set out the significant findings of the assessment including identifying who is responsible for fire risk management, details about the building that are relevant to the fire risk prevention measures required and actions required.	C,D,G
5	The fire risk assessment is clear that appropriate consideration has been given to: Fire hazards and means for their elimination to their control Maintenance of fire protection measure Relevant aspects of fire safety management The likelihood of fire and its likely consequences The fire risk The fire risk assessment results in an action plan	C,D,G
6	Procedures as identified in the fire risk assessment should be reviewed at least every 3 years AND when changes are made to the building.	G,H

Evidence

Criteria	Evidence requirement
-	The evidence below is not exhaustive, please also refer to the ‘BREEAM evidential requirements’ section in the scope of the Guidance for appropriate evidence types which can be used to demonstrate compliance.
All	Copy of most recent fire risk assessment, including: - Evidence of the competence of the person undertaking the fire risk assessment. Evidence that the fire risk assessment has been reviewed within the last 3 years or whenever changes were made to the building, whichever is soonest.
4	Evidence of fire safety manager checking through documentation and recent examples.

Definitions

Competent person:

A person with enough training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable them properly to assist in undertaking the preventative and protective measures. For more complex assessments, the necessary competency may not reside with a single individual, but will instead be provided by a team, including those with relevant local knowledge.

Fire risk assessment:

A fire risk assessment is a systemic and structured assessment of the fire risk in premises for the purpose of expressing the current level of fire risk, determining the adequacy of existing fire precautions and determining the need for, and nature of, any additional fire precautions. Additional fire precautions required are set out in the action place which forms part of the documented fire risk assessment. The objective of the action plan is to set out measures that will ensure that the risk level is reduced to, or maintained at, a tolerable level. This ensures that the focus concentrates on fire prevention measures. instead of just fire protection measures.

Additional information

BREEAM’s approach to fire risk assessment

BREEAM’s approach to fire risk assessment has been adapted from Publicly Available Specification 79 Fire risk assessment – Guidance and a recommended methodology, 2012 (PAS 79:2012). This approach to fire risk assessment tends to parallel that adopted in health and safety risk assessments, whereby the objective of the risk assessment is not merely preventing harm to people as a result of a hazard but begins with endeavours to eliminate or reduce the hazard itself