How much does a fire risk assessment cost in 2025

Fire risk assessment cost varies depending on a wide range of factors. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person has a legal requirement to complete a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment for any building that is not a private dwelling. This includes commercial property and common parts of shared residential buildings. There are some exceptions to this. But for 99% of commercial clients, this is a legal requirement. 

The term' suitable and sufficient' means that the fire risk assessment must be competently written and of a standard that is suitable to manage the level of fire risk. For example, you would expect a fire risk assessment for an industrial factory to be much more detailed than a fire risk assessment for a small coffee shop. The cost of a fire risk assessment for these two examples would also be very different.

There are a number of factors that affect the cost of a fire risk assessment, these are:

Complexity

The more complex the fire risk is, the higher the cost of a fire risk assessment. Using our previous example, you might expect a fire risk assessor to spend two days on the ground completing a fire risk assessment in an industrial factory. Whereas it might be half a day, actually on-site at the local coffee shop.

Pre-Fire Risk Assessment Work

Prior to any fire risk assessment completion, there is an element of preparatory work that needs to be done. So the fire risk assessor will request from the company being assessed, previous fire risk assessments, a fire plan, training records in fire safety-related areas, the fire log, details of previous fire-related incidents, and maintenance records of fire equipment, such as extinguishers or sprinkler systems. 

So, using our example again, this pre-assessment documentation review might take a whole day for an industrial factory. But only a few hours for a local coffee shop.

Fire Risk Assessment Competency

The competency required of the fire risk assessor will also have an impact on working out how much a fire risk assessment costs. The fire risk assessment must be competently written. So, using our example, a local coffee shop fire risk assessment is a basic fire risk assessment. Therefore, you can complete this with a Level 3 fire risk assessment qualification and some experience in lower risk level fire risk assessments. 

Whereas for an industrial factory, the fire risk assessor would need to be not only more qualified to write this level of fire risk assessment, but also suitably experienced in writing fire risk assessments for businesses of a similar level of fire safety risk. You’d also expect that the fire risk assessor for an industrial factory was a member of a body such as the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM), and that the company they worked for was a member of an organisation like the BAFE risk register. Both the IFSM and BAFE independently verify the level of fire risk assessor and the organisation that they work for to a quantifiable industry standard. Therefore, the cost of a fire risk assessment is also determined by the competency of the fire risk assessor and the company they work for.

Fire Risk Assessment Report

The size of the fire risk assessment report also affects the cost of a fire risk assessment. The longer and more complex the report needs to be, the higher the fire risk assessment cost will increase accordingly. For a local coffee shop's fire risk assessment, the report might take two hours to write up. Whereas for an industrial factory, the report might take two days to write up. Also, for BAFE-accredited organisations, the fire risk assessment report must be sent off for external verification by another fire risk assessor. To ensure that it meets the required standard for a fire risk assessment that is being written to manage a higher level of fire safety risk. This also needs to be factored into the cost of a fire risk assessment.

So, how much does a fire risk assessment cost

The cost of a fire risk assessment depends on several factors, including the complexity of the risk. Pre-fire risk assessment work required. Time on the ground to complete the fire risk assessment and competency of the fire risk assessor/company. Plus, how much time is needed to write up the fire risk assessment report.

Using our example, you can expect a local coffee shop fire risk assessment to take two hours for reviewing the pre-assessment documentation. Two hours to write up the fire risk assessment. Plus half a day on site completing the fire risk assessment. So around a day in total, which would be about £600+VAT.

Using our example, you could expect an industrial factory fire risk assessment to take a day for pre-assessment documentation review. Two days to write up the fire risk assessment. Plus two days on site completing the fire risk assessment. So around five days in total, which would be about £3000+VAT.

How can Safety Group support you

Safety Group is a BAFE registered specialist fire risk assessment company, that only use IFSM registered fire risk assessors. Safety  Group completes fire risk assessments on small businesses such as coffee shops, right up to more complex jobs such as industrial factories, schools, elderly care homes, and large-scale shopping centres such as Bluewater. We will work with you to ensure that you understand the fire risk assessment cost and why. Plus, we break the fire risk assessment down into jargon-free, understandable language. To support you in implementing the recommendations and reducing fire risk for your business. 

Get in touch today for a no-obligation discussion on fire safety. 

Email Safety Group Ops Director Tom Richmond on tom@safetygroupuk.com