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# Fire Drill Records: How Often, How to Run One and What to Log (UK)
- URL: https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-drill-records-uk-how-often-what-to-log/
- Published: 2026-09-07T18:42:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T12:02:02.000Z
- Description: UK law expects at least one fire drill a year, more in higher-risk premises, and a record of each one. How to plan a drill, what to time, what to write down and how long to keep it.
- Author: Jamie Dawson
- Tags: Fire Safety Logbooks

**Quick answer:** Government guidance under the Fire Safety Order is to carry out **at least one fire drill a year** and record the results. Premises with higher risk or high staff turnover (care homes, hotels, schools, shift-working sites) need them more often, and every employee should take part in a drill soon after starting. The record should show the date and time, whether it was announced, how the alarm was raised, how long the evacuation took, how many people were involved, what went wrong and what you did about it. Keep the records in the fire safety logbook, available for the fire officer.

A fire drill is the only routine test of the part of your fire strategy that involves people rather than equipment. Alarms, emergency lighting and extinguishers can all be maintained by contractors; whether staff actually leave when the alarm sounds, whether the fire marshals sweep their areas, and whether the assembly point roll call works can only be proved by practising it. This guide covers how often, how to run a drill that finds something, and what the record needs to say.

## The legal basis

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to establish procedures for serious and imminent danger, including evacuation (article 15), to provide employees with adequate fire safety training when they start and at intervals afterwards (article 21), and to record the significant findings of the fire risk assessment and the arrangements made under it where the premises has five or more employees (article 9). Fire drills are how the article 15 procedures are tested and how much of the article 21 training is delivered, and the records are the evidence for article 9.

The Order does not specify a frequency. GOV.UK's workplace fire safety guidance says to carry out at least one fire drill per year and record the results, and the sector risk assessment guides published under the Order set the same baseline while expecting more in higher-risk premises. Scotland and Northern Ireland have equivalent requirements under their own legislation.

## How often

- **Offices, shops and low-risk workplaces:** at least once a year, plus a walk-through of the escape routes for every new starter at induction.
- **Premises with shifts:** at least once a year for each shift pattern, so that night staff have practised as well as day staff.
- **Schools:** at least once a term is the widely adopted practice, with the first drill early in the autumn term while new pupils and staff are settling in.
- **Care homes, hospitals and sleeping accommodation:** more frequent, driven by the fire risk assessment. Horizontal or progressive evacuation procedures need regular practice by every shift, and drills are usually run as table-top or partial exercises so residents are not moved unnecessarily.
- **Hotels, hostels and holiday lets:** drills involve staff, not guests. Run them at least annually and whenever the evacuation procedure changes.
- **After any change:** new layout, new alarm system, new assembly point, significant change in occupancy or a real evacuation that revealed problems. Do not wait for the anniversary.

## Planning a drill that tests something

A drill where everyone strolls out of the nearest door and stands in the car park proves very little. Decide in advance what this drill is testing, then design it around that:

- **Choose a scenario** and a location for the "fire". Placing it near the main entrance forces people onto alternative routes they have never used.
- **Block an exit** (with a marshal and a sign, not physically) to test whether people know the second way out.
- **Decide whether it is announced.** An announced drill tests the procedure; an unannounced one tests the reaction. A mix over the year is best. Even for unannounced drills, tell the alarm receiving centre, any neighbours who share the alarm, and anyone for whom a surprise alarm would be dangerous.
- **Brief the observers.** Station people at exits, stairs and the assembly point with a watch and a checklist: did doors open, did anyone go back, did anyone carry drinks, did lifts get used, were the fire doors closed behind people.
- **Include PEEPs.** Anyone with a personal emergency evacuation plan should have that plan exercised, using refuges and evacuation chairs where they form part of it. If the plan relies on named helpers, check the helpers were there.
- **Start it properly.** Raise the alarm from a manual call point, as in a real event, rather than from the panel. Note which call point so the alarm logbook entry matches.

## Running the drill

Start the clock when the alarm sounds. Marshals sweep their areas, close doors, and report to the assembly point controller; the controller records each area as clear and notes anyone unaccounted for. Stop the clock when the last person reaches the assembly point or the last area is reported clear, whichever is later. Hold people at the assembly point for the roll call and a short debrief; the debrief is where you learn that the alarm could not be heard in the plant room or that the fire exit push bar was stiff. Then stand the drill down, reset the alarm, and tell the ARC.

There is no legal evacuation time. Most guidance and BS 9999 relate acceptable times to the risk profile of the building; for a typical office, two to three minutes is a common working benchmark. The useful comparison is against your own previous drills: an evacuation that took four minutes when last year's took two and a half is the finding, whatever the absolute number.

## What to record

Each drill should have a written record containing at least:

- **Date, start time and end time**, and the elapsed evacuation time.
- **Type of drill**: announced or unannounced, full or partial, which shift or department.
- **How the alarm was raised** (call point number) and whether the ARC was informed.
- **Scenario**, including any exits treated as blocked.
- **Number of people evacuated**, number of marshals on duty, and the assembly point used.
- **PEEPs exercised** and whether they worked as written.
- **Problems observed**: audibility, blocked or difficult exits, people not evacuating, lifts used, doors propped, roll call gaps.
- **Actions** arising from each problem, who owns them and the date completed.
- **Name and signature** of the person running the drill, and the responsible person's sign-off.
- **Date of the next planned drill.**

Alongside the drill record, update individual training records to show which employees took part. When an inspecting officer asks whether staff have been trained, the drill record and the training record together answer the question.

## Using the record

The drill record is the input to the next review of the fire risk assessment. Problems found in drills are, by definition, significant findings: a fire exit that people could not open, an alarm that could not be heard, an evacuation chair nobody knew how to use. Transfer them to the action plan, give each an owner and a date, and close them out in writing. A drill record with problems listed and actions closed is worth far more to an inspecting officer than a series of records that say "no issues".

## How long to keep drill records

The Fire Safety Order sets no retention period. Keep drill records for at least the current and previous fire risk assessment cycles, and in practice for three to five years, so that trends are visible and any enforcement or insurance enquiry can be answered. Keep the record of any drill that identified a serious problem until the problem is demonstrably resolved and reviewed.

## FAQs

### Do I have to hold fire drills if I have fewer than five employees?

Yes. The duty to establish and practise evacuation procedures applies regardless of size. The five-employee threshold affects only the duty to record the fire risk assessment's significant findings; keeping drill records anyway is strongly advisable.

### Must drills be unannounced?

No. There is no legal requirement either way. Announced drills are better for teaching the procedure; unannounced drills are better for testing it. Run both over the course of a year.

### Do I need to tell the fire brigade before a drill?

Not unless the fire and rescue service would otherwise be called. If your alarm is monitored by an alarm receiving centre, put it on test with them first. If neighbours share the alarm or would hear it, warn them.

### What about staff who work from home or are off site?

They should still take part in a drill when they are next on the premises, and their training record should show it. Home workers should be covered by the fire safety guidance you give them for their own homes, but that is a separate matter from workplace drills.

### Can a table-top exercise count as a drill?

In premises where a full evacuation would be unsafe or unreasonable (care homes, hospitals), table-top and partial exercises are the normal approach and are accepted by inspecting officers, provided every shift takes part and the records show what was exercised. Elsewhere, a physical drill is expected.

## Sources and further reading

- [The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/contents/made?ref=logbook.co.uk), articles 9, 15 and 21
- [GOV.UK: Fire safety in the workplace, fire safety advice documents](https://www.gov.uk/workplace-fire-safety-your-responsibilities/fire-safety-advice-documents?ref=logbook.co.uk)
- [GOV.UK: Fire safety risk assessment guides (offices and shops, sleeping accommodation, residential care, educational premises)](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-safety-law-and-guidance-documents-for-business?ref=logbook.co.uk)
- [BS 9999: Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings, Code of practice (BSI)](https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/?ref=logbook.co.uk)

*Reviewed by Jamie Dawson, Editor of Logbook.*

**⬇ Free download:** our [fire safety logbook template with fire drill record sheet (PDF & Excel)](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-safety-logbook-template/) gives you the record sheets from this guide, ready to print or fill in.

## Related guides

- [Fire marshal training records: the employer's guide](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-marshal-training-records-uk-employers-guide/)
- [Is a fire safety logbook a legal requirement in the UK?](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-safety-logbook-legal-requirement-uk/)
- [Fire risk assessment record-keeping](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-risk-assessment-record-keeping-uk/)
- [Fire alarm logbooks: what must be recorded and how often](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-alarm-logbook-uk-requirements/)

*Free download: our* [*fire drill record template*](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-drill-record-template/) *logs evacuation time, roll call, the problems the drill exposed and the action taken, in print-ready PDF and editable Excel.*