How often should a school fire risk assessment be reviewed?

What the law actually says

Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks, and to keep it under review. It must be reviewed if there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid, or if there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates. Where the premises are subject to review, changes must be made where necessary.

So the Order gives a trigger-based duty, not a calendar. The annual convention exists because a school is a changing building with a changing population: new staff, new room uses, new storage, new lettings, and a maintenance history that quietly alters compartmentation. Twelve months is about the longest most school sites can go before the written assessment stops matching the building.

Since the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, the recording expectations have tightened further: the assessment must be recorded in full, and fire safety information must be shared with staff and, in some premises, with residents. For schools that means the review is not just a technical exercise — it is the point at which the recorded information gets refreshed.

A practical review cycle for a school

• Every term — check open fire risk assessment actions at the health and safety committee or leadership meeting. Not a review of the assessment, but the thing that keeps it honest.
• Annually — a documented review by the responsible person or premises lead: does the assessment still describe the building, the occupancy and the arrangements? Sign and date it, even if nothing has changed.
• Every three to five years — a full reassessment by a competent fire risk assessor. Three years for older, complex, boarding or heavily altered estates; five for simple, modern, low-change buildings.
• On trigger — immediately, whenever one of the events below occurs.

Triggers for an earlier review

• Building, refurbishment or roofing work, including cable runs through compartment walls
• New or relocated modular classrooms, or a change of room use such as a store becoming a classroom
• A change in occupancy — a nursery opening, boarding, wraparound care or regular lettings
• New processes or storage, particularly DT, science, kitchens and battery charging
• A fire, an unwanted alarm pattern, or a significant near miss
• A fire and rescue service audit, notice or informal advice
• A new responsible person, or a change of premises contractor
• A pupil or member of staff whose needs change the evacuation strategy

What a good review actually checks

A review is not a re-read. Working through the building with the assessment in hand, you are testing whether each of these still holds:

• The plans and room uses match what is there today
• Every action from the last assessment is closed, with evidence — not just marked "in progress"
• Escape routes are clear, doors are on their closers and compartmentation is intact
• Testing records are current: weekly alarm, monthly emergency lighting, annual servicing
• Drills have happened, been varied, and produced lessons that were acted on
• Personal emergency evacuation plans exist for everyone who needs one and are current
• Fire wardens and the roll-call arrangement still work with the current staffing

In my experience the review rarely fails on the document. It fails on the actions. A school with a twelve-month-old assessment and every action closed is in a far stronger position than a school with a brand-new assessment and a list of open items nobody owns. See fire doors in schools for the defect that comes up most often in that action list.

Evidencing it for governors and inspectors

Whatever cycle you set, the evidence needs to be retrievable in a couple of minutes: the current assessment with its date and the assessor's name, the dated review record, the action log showing closure dates, and the last report to the board. Governors do not need the technical detail — they need to see that the assessment is current, who owns it, and how many actions are overdue.

Related reading: who is responsible for fire safety in a school? and how health and safety is monitored in schools.

How SchoolSafe Systems helps

SchoolSafe Systems provides an independent review of your existing assessment, turns the outstanding actions into a plan with owners and dates, and reports the position in terms governors can act on. See fire risk assessments for schools and the school fire safety hub.