> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.logbook.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Who Assessed Your Building? The Fire Risk Assessor Record Most Files Are Missing - URL: https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-risk-assessor-identity-competence-record/ - Published: 2026-10-05T18:33:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-05T18:33:41.000Z - Description: Since 2023 the law makes your fire risk assessor's identity a record you must keep and hand over. What to file about their competence, and why it matters. - Author: Jamie Dawson - Tags: Fire Safety Logbooks, News If someone else carried out your fire risk assessment, the law in England has required you since 1 October 2023 to keep a record of who they were, and to hand that record on if responsibility for the building changes. In blocks of flats, residents must be told as well. What the law does not yet require, but every inspecting officer and insurer will look for, is evidence of why that person was competent for your building. Since September 2026 there is a much clearer way to write that evidence down. ## What has happened On 8 September 2026 the Fire Industry Association launched three regulated qualifications for fire risk assessors, awarded by FireQual: a Level 3 Foundation certificate (due early 2027), a Level 4 Intermediate certificate (available now) and a Level 5 Advanced certificate (to follow) ([Fire Safety Matters](https://www.fsmatters.com/FIA-focuses-on-fire-risk-assessment-qualifications?ref=logbook.co.uk)). They are built against BS 8674:2025, which grades individual assessors at those three levels according to the risk and complexity of the building. The context is a profession in transition. Government [consulted on regulating fire risk assessors](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fire-risk-assessors-profession?ref=logbook.co.uk) between March and June 2026 and has not yet responded. The main certification scheme, [BAFE SP205](https://www.bafe.org.uk/bafe-news/sp205-version-6-is-now-available?ref=logbook.co.uk), now requires certificated companies to hold regulated qualifications at the right level by 31 March 2028\. And a legal duty to appoint only a competent assessor, written into the Fire Safety Order as article 9A by the Building Safety Act 2022, [has still not been brought into force](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/156?ref=logbook.co.uk). For record keepers, that means the words used to describe an assessor's competence are about to change, and the old file will not use them. ## The record the law already requires Most fire safety files hold the assessment itself: a dated document, usually a PDF, with a table of findings at the back. Fewer hold a clear, separate note of who produced it. That note is not optional. [Article 22A](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/22A?ref=logbook.co.uk) of the Fire Safety Order defines "relevant fire safety information" to include the records of your assessments and "the identity of any person appointed by the responsible person to assist them with making or reviewing an assessment". It then says two things. You must keep records of that information. And when you stop being the responsible person, you must give it to whoever takes over. For buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, [article 21A](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/21A?ref=logbook.co.uk) goes further: the assessor's identity is one of the things residents must be told. Government guidance on section 156 puts it plainly: record the individual's name and, where applicable, their organisation's name, for [each assessment or review they carry out](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/check-your-fire-safety-responsibilities-under-section-156-of-the-building-safety-act-2022/fire-safety-responsibilities-under-section-156-of-the-building-safety-act-2022?ref=logbook.co.uk). Where this goes wrong in practice is handover. A building is sold, a managing agent is replaced, a tenant takes a full repairing lease. The PDF moves across. The contract, the emails and the knowledge of who actually walked the building usually do not. ## The record you should keep alongside it A name tells an inspecting officer who assessed the building. It does not tell them why that person was a reasonable choice. That second question is the one that matters if the assessment is ever tested, because "suitable and sufficient" will be judged by what a competent assessor would have found. The National Fire Chiefs Council's advice on [finding a fire risk assessor](https://nfcc.org.uk/our-services/building-safety/protection-building-safety/finding-a-fire-risk-assessor/?ref=logbook.co.uk) includes keeping records of how you chose them. BS 8674 now gives that record a structure. For each assessment or review, a short competence note should capture: - The assessor's name, and the company they worked for - The date of the site visit and the date of the report, which are often different - What was in scope and what was excluded (for example, external walls, or areas not accessed) - The BS 8674 level the assessor works at, and why it fits this building - Their qualification, level and awarding body - Any certification scheme or professional register, with the certificate or membership number - The date you checked that certificate or register entry, and where you checked it - Professional indemnity cover, and its expiry date None of this needs special software. A single sheet, filed in front of each assessment, does the job. ## Paper, digital, and the problem with expiry dates A paper competence sheet is a perfectly good record, and for a single small building it may be all you ever need. Its weakness is time. Certificates lapse, register entries are withdrawn and insurance runs out, and a sheet in a lever arch file cannot tell you that has happened. Over the next eighteen months many assessors will also move from older descriptions of competence to BS 8674 levels and new qualifications. A digital log that holds expiry dates and prompts a recheck before each review is the one thing that genuinely does better than paper here. Whatever format you use, keep the competence note with the assessment it relates to, and keep the historic ones. If a past assessment is ever questioned, the note from that year is the evidence, not this year's. ### Records you must keep - ✓A record of the identity of every person or organisation that made or reviewed each fire risk assessment - ✓A competence note for each assessment or review, filed with it - ✓Evidence of the certificate or register check, with the date it was made - ✓A copy of the information given to residents, where article 21A applies - ✓A handover pack for any new responsible person, containing the assessments and the identity records ## Frequently asked questions ### Is it a legal requirement to keep my assessor's qualifications? Not in those words. The law requires you to record their identity and pass it on. Keeping competence evidence is good practice, and it is what you will be asked for if the assessment is challenged. ### Does my assessor now need one of the new qualifications? No law requires it today. Companies certificated under BAFE SP205 must have regulated qualifications in place by 31 March 2028, and government's response to its consultation may change the position for everyone. ### I did the assessment myself. What do I record? Record that you made it, and note the training, experience and knowledge you relied on. The same identity rules apply to anyone who helped you. ### What if I inherited a building and do not know who assessed it? Ask the previous responsible person, who is legally required to provide it. If that fails, record what you tried, and treat the next review as the start of a clean record. ## Related guides - [How to keep a fire risk assessment record](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-risk-assessment-record-keeping-uk/) - [Fire risk assessment: UK business legal requirements](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-risk-assessment-uk-business-legal-requirements/) - [Your fire risk assessment found problems. What proves you fixed them?](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-risk-assessment-action-plan-close-out-records/) - [What is a fire safety logbook, and is it a legal requirement?](https://www.logbook.co.uk/fire-safety-logbook-legal-requirement-uk/) ### Primary sources [**Fire Safety Matters**"FIA introduces new suite of fire risk assessment-centred qualifications", 8 September 2026](https://www.fsmatters.com/FIA-focuses-on-fire-risk-assessment-qualifications?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005**Article 22A](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/22A?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005**Article 21A](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1541/article/21A?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Building Safety Act 2022**Section 156, with commencement information](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/156?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**GOV.UK**Fire safety responsibilities under section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/check-your-fire-safety-responsibilities-under-section-156-of-the-building-safety-act-2022/fire-safety-responsibilities-under-section-156-of-the-building-safety-act-2022?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**GOV.UK consultation**Fire risk assessors profession](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fire-risk-assessors-profession?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**BAFE**SP205 Version 6 now available](https://www.bafe.org.uk/bafe-news/sp205-version-6-is-now-available?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**NFCC**Finding a fire risk assessor](https://nfcc.org.uk/our-services/building-safety/protection-building-safety/finding-a-fire-risk-assessor/?ref=logbook.co.uk)