A Fire Safety Audit is an examination of your business’ premises and relevant documents by fire safety inspectors, to ascertain how your premises are being managed with regards to fire safety.

During the audit, officers may speak to some of your employees to ensure their fire safety awareness is at the level you proclaimed.

Fire Safety Audits are usually pre-arranged and can be conducted for a number of reasons:

• A complaint
• A fire
• A follow-up audit
• On request, i.e. if an owner or occupier requests an audit
• In conjunction with other authorities, i.e. if you’ve submitted a premises license application.

The relevant documents you may be asked for during an audit that could include, but are not limited to:

• A suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment
• Action plans related to any significant findings of the fire risk assessment
• Emergency plans for the premises
• Preventative and protective measures regarding fire
• Training programmes and procedures
• Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) – evidence of a fire safety maintenance checklist (what is checked, by who, and when, and maintenance of structured records)