In the past, risk assessment was generally carried out by the person drafting the standards and, in a wholly prescriptive manner, was compensated by ‘closed guidelines’ that could not be altered by designers and companies. Today, the latest assessment methods use a modern performance-based approach that analyses the real fire risk, taking into account every possible scenario, and the compensatory measures needed.
This work demands close interaction between the designer, the owner of the business and other professionals working on the company’s safety and systems, such as the HPPS, the Facility Manager and the insurance broker.
In order to draw up a correct Risk Assessment, advanced and new assessments are also decisive, such as, for example, the Business Continuity Plan document or accurate Property Loss assessments. Advanced guidelines that allow for evaluations of all the possible and most serious risk scenarios are then applied to each part of the company.
The actual Risk Assessment document then makes it possible to move on to subsequent steps for applying the compensation strategy, and drafting the project phase.
Risk assessment is no longer solely required of businesses that are subject to fire prevention inspections; in actual fact, following its entry into force on 3 September 2021, it has become mandatory for all working activities, as an integral part of the Company Risk Assessment Document.
This shift has resulted in uniform application of fire risk assessment concepts within companies, without distinction between activities that are subject to inspections or otherwise.