| SSAIB certification highlights a company's capability in providing high quality fire risk assessments |
SSAIB, the UK and Ireland’s leading certification body for organisations – providing a variety of electronic security, manned guarding services, fire protection, intruder, and other alarm systems – has unveiled an important and topical fire scheme.
SSAIB’s new BAFE SP205 UKAS-accredited certification scheme will enable anyone who’s required by law to carry out a fire risk assessment of a premises, and who employs a specialist third party company to provide this, to demonstrate that they’ve taken the necessary reasonable steps to comply with their legal obligations and requirements under fire safety legislation.
Besides those responsible for carrying out such an assessment, SSAIB’s new independent third party certification service will also benefit fire risk assessment providers, who’ll be able to use their SSAIB accreditation to attract end user customers. SSAIB certification provides a benchmark recognition of a company’s capability in providing high quality fire risk assessments – by showing that they have the required technical and quality management competency, and that their assessors possess the relevant proficiency and knowledge.
Interest in fire risk assessment is growing steadily, driven by factors including the scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales and the equivalent legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The ‘Responsible Person’ or ‘Duty Holder’ for a building must ensure a fire risk assessment is completed. To ensure the competence and reliability of a company commissioned to carry out fire risk assessment, British Approvals for Fire Equipment (BAFE) recently introduced its Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment SP205 Scheme.
SSAIB is the first third party certification provider to introduce an SP205 scheme for firms or individuals offering fire risk assessment services and achieving it will offer a significant marketing tool by enabling them to display the valuable SSAIB/UKAS certification mark (including the ‘crown and tick’ logo). “We’ve invested time and resources in achieving this UKAS accredited approval, so that end users with responsibilities under the law can rest assured that risk assessment service providers holding SSAIB certification approval will provide fire risk assessments that fully comply with the law,” says SSAIB Chief Executive Geoff Tate.