INDUSTRY NEWS
THE PROGRESS OF THIRD PARTY CERTIFICATION
I
f you’re a fire risk assessor providing assessments as a commercial service, now is the time to become Third Party
Certificated; lots of choice now exists and there should be no excuse.
When asked about the difference that Third Party
Certification has made to his organisation, Darren Baird, MD of Total Fire Services said: “Within a week of being listed on the BAFE SP205 register we were contacted by a hotel chain asking us to tender for fire risk assessment services”. “Before making the investment of time and money in
certification we had never been asked if we had third party certification for fire risk assessment services, but with a register, clients are going directly to those who are listed. I don’t want to give away the client’s name but we are currently bidding for a very large project which has specified third party certification and we are using the ‘Guide to choosing a competent fire risk assessor’ to help explain to clients why they should use a certificated company”, he explains. Anybody and everybody could see that the fire sector had an issue with competency which leads to huge variations in fire risk assessment service provision. When all the major stakeholders were asked about this, they all agreed that a definition of competency was needed and that a bench mark be set. The Fire Risk Assessment Competency Council formed and published the ‘Competency Criteria’ document in December 2011. Earlier this year the Council published its second document (1st Feb 2013), which is intended to be used as a signpost document. ‘A guide to choosing a competent fire risk assessor’ sets out to help the duty holder through the process and should they wish to employ the services of a fire risk assessor, this document includes the links to the registers of fire risk assessors.
Whilst the UK Government has repeatedly confirmed that they will not make the use of Third Party Certificated companies mandatory, they have strongly encouraged the industry to resolve the issue itself and therefore support the work of this Council. 19 out of the 46 UK Fire and Rescue Services have already adopted this signpost document and have published it on their website. The remaining 27 will be chased to follow suit! The 30 organisations which form the Competency Council should also be using this document to sign post the duty holders and a quick ‘google’ search shows most of them are. An updated version of the guide was published on 24th May
2013, which includes another Company certification scheme now available, the UKAS accredited, IFC Certification scheme (IFCC 0099). The Fire Risk Assessment Competency Council recommends the use of fire risk assessment companies, including sole traders, which are Third Party Certified to appropriate schemes operated by Certification Bodies which have been UKAS
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accredited to certificate against such schemes. This second company scheme provides further choice. The BAFE SP205 company scheme (already on the list) has 15 companies registered and is offered through three certification bodies; NSI, SSIAB and ECA certification. It is my understanding that there are at least another 20 companies already lining up for inspection through this scheme and we also know that IFCC are also working with a number of companies. We have seen the growth of Third Party Certification schemes
for portable extinguishers and FD&A companies, and we are expecting a rapid growth of Fire Risk Assessment companies. If you’re looking to invest in proving your competency
through third party certification and would like advice and support, our Compliance Manager, Vicky Keeble, can answer your questions and provide a full consultancy service, if required. Please email
vkeeble@fia.uk.com for more information.
Martin Duggan, General Manager
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