The law does not give a number, which is why practices get asked the question so often. This guide sets out what the Order requires, what triggers a review, and how a practice keeps hundreds of review cycles running without one slipping.
Article 9(3) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the fire risk assessment to be reviewed regularly so as to keep it up to date, and in particular where there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates. There is no statutory interval. The Responsible Person has to decide what regular means for their premises, and most of them ask their assessor.
In practice a cycle has grown up around the duty: an annual review to confirm the assessment still stands, a full reassessment every few years or when the building changes, and a review straight away after anything that could invalidate it. Those are conventions rather than law, and the right interval for a small office is not the right interval for a care home or a block of flats over 11 metres, where the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 add their own recurring checks.
For the practice, the operational problem is scale. A consultancy holding five hundred clients has five hundred review dates, each with its own cycle, its own history of change and its own Responsible Person who may or may not respond. A missed review is an assessment that quietly stops being valid, and it is the practice's name on the last one issued.
Treat every issued assessment as the start of a cycle rather than the end of a job. The review date is set at issue, on the case, and the case carries the cycle: when the next review is due, what kind of review it is, what changed since, and what the outcome was. The practice then has a book of review cycles it can see across, rather than a diary that one person keeps.
The cycle needs two kinds of trigger. The scheduled one is the review date, driven by the building's risk profile and the interval the practice has set for that class of premises. The event-driven one is a change at the premises: a change of use, an alteration, a change in occupancy, a fire or near miss, an enforcement notice. Those arrive from the client, so the client needs an easy way to report them and the practice needs them to land on the right case.
A review that concludes the assessment is still valid is itself a record, and it should be kept as one. The Responsible Person's file should show that the assessment was reviewed on a date, by whom, what was considered and what was decided. An annual review that confirms nothing has changed is evidence of a duty discharged; a review that never happened is the opposite.
Follow these steps to turn review dates from a diary into a managed cycle that the practice controls and can evidence.
When the assessment is issued, set the review date on the same case, according to the interval the practice has decided for that class of premises. The date is part of the record of issue, not a separate note.
Define the review interval and reassessment interval the practice applies to each class: low-risk commercial, sleeping accommodation, care premises, residential blocks by height, and so on. The decision is the practice's professional judgement and it should be recorded so it can be explained and applied consistently.
As the review date approaches, the case should prompt the practice and write to the client. A first notice, a follow-up, and an escalation if there is no reply, each recorded against the case. The practice should never discover an overdue review by accident.
The event-driven triggers depend on the client telling you. A simple form or a line in the annual reminder asking whether the building, its use or its occupancy has changed, whether there has been a fire or an alarm activation, and whether the fire service has visited, brings those triggers in. A yes should create a review task on the case straight away.
Not every review needs a site visit and not every change needs a new assessment. Record the decision on the case: reviewed remotely and confirmed, reviewed on site and updated, or reassessed in full, and the reason. That record is what shows the Responsible Person acted regularly and with judgement.
A review that confirms the assessment is still valid gets recorded with the date, the reviewer and what was considered. The next review date is set from it. Over time the case holds the whole history of the premises: every assessment, every review, every change reported and what was done about it.
Many practices find that the review cycle is their steadiest line of work once it is managed. A client who is reminded reliably, told what has changed and offered the right level of review stays a client.
Clients understand an annual check and a periodic full assessment when the difference is explained. Offer both, price both, and record which one happened.
Every reminder and every reply is part of the record. If a client declines a review, the practice should be able to show that it was offered, when, and what the client said.
The review is the natural moment to ask what became of last year's actions. An assessment whose findings were never addressed is not one the practice should simply re-date.
Residential buildings over 11 metres carry recurring checks under the 2022 Regulations, and higher-risk buildings over 18 metres or seven storeys sit in the Building Safety Act regime. Their cycles are shorter and more scrutinised, and they deserve their own view.
Due this month, overdue, reviewed, reassessed, declined. A practice that can see those five numbers can manage the book; one that cannot will find out about the gaps from a client or a fire officer.
Set turnaround targets for write-up, QA and issue, and timings for review reminders.
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Bring us your client list and we will show you what it looks like as a managed book of review cycles, with the reminders, the change reports and the records running from the case.
