The Building Safety Bill received Royal Assent in April 2022 and became the Building Safety Act 2022. The new legislation has the effect of amending the Fire Safety Order to:

• Require that all Responsible Persons (RP) must record their completed fire risk assessment, and in full (where previously only specific information was required to be recorded)
• Require that all RP’s must record the identity of any individual (their name), and/or if applicable, their organisation (name) engaged by them to undertake/review any or all of the fire risk assessment, and share this with residents of multi-residential unit premises where applicable;

Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 has legislative requirement that, where the RP appoints a person to make or review the fire risk assessment, they must be competent. This legislative requirement will be brought into force at a later date, and the Government will provide relevant guidance ahead of the commencement date. In the meantime, if a fire risk assessor is appointed, there is a recommendation that RPs ensure they are competent to do so, in terms of having sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities. It remains the case that the RP has a duty to make sure that a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment is completed.