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| Director of Fire Safety Solutions Paul Gotthardt receives his certification from SSAIB Chief Executive Geoff Tate |
SSAIB, the UK’s leading certification body for organisations – providing a variety of electronic security, manned guarding services, fire protection, intruder, and other alarm systems – has certificated its first company to the new BAFE SP205 UKAS-accredited scheme. Paul Gotthardt, Director of Fire Safety Solutions, received his certification in a presentation by Geoff Tate, SSAIB’s Chief Executive.
SSAIB’s new SP205 scheme enables 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.
Fire Safety Solutions, based in Burnley, Lancs, is an independent provider of specialist consultancy services including fire risk assessment. Since the company’s formation in 2001 it has forged an impressive client base including Lancaster City Council, Accent Group Housing, BOC Gases, the Jeyes Group and Walkers Snack Foods.
“Gaining SP205 certification helps me to prove to our existing and potential customers that we carry out due diligence and are up to the mark,” declares Mr Gotthardt.A little, or indeed the wrong knowledge, can be dangerous and the SP205 scheme provides a benchmark for reassurance. I researched the SP205 certification providers before opting for SSAIB as my first choice because it’s an approachable, friendly and professional organisation. SSAIB’s assessors held my hand all the way through the process, which is especially useful for a smaller size company such as ours.”
Besides those responsible for carrying out fire risk assessments, 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. “This is a tremendous marketing tool and we’d recommend it to others,” Mr Gotthardt adds.
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.
