Do you know when your last Fire Risk Assessment was done?
If the answer is before 2024, it’s almost certainly out of date. (And if you don’t know – check!)
A Fire Risk Assessment is integral to your building’s safety, but it has an expiration date. We don’t necessarily mean in years, but rather, relevance.
Workplaces have changed significantly in the last few years. Occupancy rates, hybrid working patterns, new technology, and changes to building layouts. These are just some of the differences that can put your business at increased risk, and it’s likely some of them didn’t exist when your FRA was last reviewed.
So, does your FRA reflect the reality of your workplace today? Let’s take a closer look.
Valid vs Current: Understanding the Difference
Your FRA might be legal, but is it right for your building?
A valid FRA simply means that a competent person conducted it, and that it follows the correct
format. But that’s useless if it’s based on out-of-date information.
Let’s put it another way. Your last FRA took place in 2022. Post pandemic, but still fresh from the changes made during that time. It’s still valid because it’s in date. But it assumes you have 100 people working in your building, when actually, you now have only 40 on a rotating schedule. You also have new EV charging points in your car park, and your meeting rooms have been repurposed.
Is it legally valid? Yes. Is it current, and does it provide real-world safety? Probably not…
The 2026 Reality Check: What Has Changed?
A Fire Risk Assessment must be reviewed whenever there is a ‘significant change’ to a building or the way it is used.
Here in 2026, we’re seeing four major areas where older FRAs have become obsolete. And most businesses have experienced at least two of them.
These don’t tend to be dramatic changes. Most of them have happened gradually in the background, and these are dangerously undermining the information your Fire Risk Assessment was built on.
Change 1: Building Layout and Use Changes
During the pandemic, many offices made changes. Some added partition walls;, others redirected foot traffic and repurposed storage rooms to provide alternative workstations
Whilst these were supposed to be temporary fixes, in plenty of offices, they have become permanent fixtures.
And the changes haven’t stopped there. Here are some other ways things might look different today:
- Open plan spaces sectioned off to create meeting rooms
- Kitchenettes added to floors that didn’t have them
- Server rooms relocated to accommodate hot-desking
- Retail spaces converted to offices.
These layout changes often interfere with smoke detectors, sprinkler heads and established fire exit routes. Think about it. That ‘temporarily’ partitioned meeting room? It’s a fire trap without an effective detection system. The meeting space-turned-storage area packed with archived files and charging equipment? Whilst it was a low-risk area with minimal ignition sources before, it’s now an accident waiting to happen.
What’s more is that if the way your office is used has changed, your original fire exit signs and emergency lighting may no longer be in the right places to lead people to safety.
Change 2: The Hybrid Working Problem
Hybrid working – a flexible arrangement where employees split their time between working remotely (e.g. from home) and working in a shared office space – presents a very specific problem for
fire safety. This is because many businesses have the same number of Fire Wardens they had in 2019 – even though half of their workforce is working remotely on any given day.
Why does it matter, you ask? Surely that means that the ratio of Fire Wardens to people in the office is better? Not necessarily. If all of your designated Fire Wardens are working from home on a Wednesday, who’s responsible for guiding people to safety during an evacuation?
Your Fire Risk Assessment MUST account for your now fluctuating occupancy patterns. This might mean creating a different warden system that reflects hybrid working arrangements, or
training more staff to ensure appropriate coverage every day of the week.
Change 3: EV Charging Infrastructure and Lithium-Ion Battery Risks
We’ve looked at office layout and working patterns, but what about technical changes?
The biggest technical shift in workplace fire risk is the addition of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Electric cars boast many green benefits, and many businesses have installed EV charging points in their car parks – but this change greatly increases fire risks that older Fire Risk Assessments won’t have taken into account.
EVs use lithium-ion batteries, and the fires that occur around these are incredibly intense:
- They produce toxic fumes
- They are extremely challenging to extinguish with standard firefighting equipment.
- They can reignite hours or even days after appearing to be extinguished.
If your car park is under or attached to your office space, an EV fire could easily spread to the main building or obstruct your evacuation routes.
Does your FRA note that you have EV charging stations, or where they’re stationed? Your FRA needs to assess their proximity to the building as well as evacuation routes and emergency access for fire services. Only then can it adequately describe emergency procedures in the event of an EV fire.
Change 4: Personnel and Vulnerable Persons
Workplace demographics can shift over the years. These changes create new elements of fire safety that older FRAs won’t address effectively. Keeping up to date means factoring in:
- The number of staff members who have mobility issues
- The number of expectant mothers or new parents
- The number of contractors and visitors
- Changes to lone working patterns
Does your assessment account for the increased number of employees with mobility issues working on upper floors? What about the significant increase in visitors you now have – people who don’t know your building layout?
For many businesses, evacuation plans that met criteria years ago may no longer reflect their current workforce needs. Staff turnover also means fewer employees are likely to be familiar with emergency procedures, especially if they are outdated and don’t match your building layout.
Your FRA must identify all vulnerable people in your workforce and ensure adequate provisions exist for them to be able to evacuate safely in the event of a fire. Not based on who worked there previously, but who works there now.
When MUST You Review Your Fire Risk Assessment?
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, your FRA must be reviewed:
- Whenever there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid, like after a near miss or an incident
- When there has been a significant change (layout, personnel, use, occupancy)
- Regularly to ensure it remains valid.
If any of these changes have occurred in your place of work, your FRA legally requires review. Now. If they haven’t, the best practice is an annual check.
Quick Validity Check: Is Your FRA Out of Date?
Not sure if your FRA needs updating? Here are five questions you can use to gauge the situation:
- Does your FRA account for EV charging infrastructure or other lithium-ion battery risks?
- Does it reflect current occupancy levels and hybrid working patterns (not pre-2020 assumptions)?
- Are all named Responsible Persons still with the company and in those roles?
- Have you changed your office layout, repurposed spaces or altered escape routes since the last assessment?
- Was it reviewed in the last 12-18 months?
If you answered no to any of these, your FRA needs to be updated. If you’ve answered no to more than one of the five questions, your FRA is urgently out of date.
What Should a 2026 Fire Risk Assessment Cover?
So, what should an effective FRA in 2026 cover? Your Fire Risk Assessment must include:
- A list of identified fire hazards (including EV charging points, increased electrical loads and lithium-ion devices)
- A list of people identified as being at risk (this must account for fluctuating occupancy, contractors and visitors)
- An evaluation of the fire risks and existing control measures (taking into account any changes in layout and space usage)
- A record of the designated Responsible People, including current contact details
- Your emergency plan (that works for hybrid teams and varied occupancy levels)
- A clear review date
- A list of events that trigger an earlier review
- An assessment of any multi-occupancy or shared building risks.
Common 2026 Compliance Failures
Let’s take a look at the predictable traps that many businesses fall into…
Outdated Responsible Person Details
Take a look at your list of Responsible People. Do they all still work for you? Your records must be up to date to be compliant. Who is actually responsible now? Who will fire officers speak to during an inspection? Make sure their contact details are recorded in your FRA.
Paper-Only Compliance
Filing away your FRA without communicating changes to your staff, including those individuals who aren’t always on site, is a surefire way to fail when it comes to fire safety compliance. Your hybrid workers won’t know about the new assembly point or temporarily blocked stairwells unless you tell them directly!
Ignoring New Infrastructure
Fire officers will notice if your Fire Risk Assessment fails to mention the sparkly new EV charging points installed outside of your building. EV charging points are a huge fire risk.
Static Emergency Procedures
Remember, your emergency plan assumes everyone knows each other and is in the office every day. With rotating teams and hot-desking, you must put procedures in place that account for everyone during an evacuation.
Why This Matters Beyond Compliance
It’s not just compliance you need to worry about. Here’s what can happen if your Fire Risk Assessment is out of date and a fire happens in your workplace:
- Your insurance becomes invalid.
- You’re given prohibition notices by fire officers, forcing the office to close until the issues are rectified.
- Your Responsible Person or People may incur unlimited fines or imprisonment.
- Your business may be liable if someone is injured as a result of unassessed risks.
- Your business reputation may suffer due to preventable incidents.
Your FRA Should Reflect Your Reality
A Fire Risk Assessment isn’t a legal hoop to jump through – it’s a living document designed to protect your people, your building and your livelihood. If your workplace looks different from how it did three years ago, your FRA must reflect that reality.
The good news? Updating your FRA is simple with Envesca’s guidance . We offer professional, comprehensive Fire Risk Assessments that account for modern workplace realities – from hybrid occupancy patterns to EV charging infrastructure – giving you confidence that your business is fully compliant and your team is safe.
Get in touch with us today.
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Highfield Level 1 Award in Fire Safety
This half-day Level 1 Fire Safety Awareness course is ideal for all staff, particularly new starters, where a basic knowledge of fire safety is needed.Highfield Level 2 Award in Risk Assessment
This one-day Level 2 Risk Assessment course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to carry out risk assessments.Highfield Level 2 Award in Fire Safety
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