consultancy – as realisation took hold, following the fire and the Hackitt review’s interim report, that having building regulations approvals in place does not necessarily provide a guarantee of safety where changes during construction or upon occupation may have impacted detrimentally. It would be good to think that a suitable and sufficient FRA, undertaken by a competent person, would have addressed any concerns; however, incidents and prosecutions paint a different picture. Experience would suggest that identifying a competent assessor, product, manufacturer or installer is not (for many) the most straightforward of tasks, and it’s easy to conclude that initiatives we in the fire, security and insurance industries have put in place to assist are well kept secrets, rather than the guidance and accessible sources of information they have been designed to be. A new guidance document published


Viewpoint S


Howard Passey, principal consultant at the FPA, outlines a new publication offering support to help end users find fire safety resources


INCE GRENFELL, the FPA has seen an increase in requests for training, fire risk assessments (FRAs) and


housing, sheltered accommodation and care homes – all of which need access to reliable, high quality products and competent services. The relationship between accreditation


and certification is described, and RC66 provides simple definitions which establish the nature of certification, accreditation, approval and competent, hopefully demystifying complex systems and schemes, and providing clear pointers to sources of competent support and high quality products. In addition, it directs towards the use


of products with a form of approval which will provide a higher degree of confidence in their performance than simply passing a test. It supports the use of UKAS accredited third party certification in providing independent confirmation that a product, service or installer meets an appropriate standard. This helps ensure (through regular certifier audits) that the product or service continues to comply with appropriate standards throughout its life or that of the installation. More practically, RC66 signposts


by RISCAuthority aims to assist end users in addressing the enormous volume of online information now available. While much of this is reliable, in some instances it can be confusing or unhelpful. RC66: Recommendations for sourcing fire safety products and services aims to provide independent background information to assist a fire safety manager, or a responsible person, who has to facilitate the installation of new products or the acquisition of fire related services. These recommendations are not only


directed towards managers of large commercial and industrial organisations, but equally to those responsible for small and medium sized enterprises including healthcare, education and providers of


organisations providing lists of approved products and services, including those offering recognition schemes for fire risk assessors such as the Institute of Fire Safety Managers’ Nationally Accredited Fire Risk Assessors Register. There is of course huge potential for this new guidance to become a well kept secret, and it will be up to us in our respective industries to ensure that we continue to promote the use of competent persons, accredited systems and equipment at every opportunity. RC66 is available to download free of charge from www. riscauthority.co.uk


Howard Passey is principal consultant at the Fire Protection Association


www.frmjournal.com MAY 2018 1


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