Fire Inspection Checklist for UK Workplaces

Published 06 November 2026 · gribit

Manager testing a workplace fire alarm call point

A good fire inspection checklist for a UK workplace covers four things: your fire risk assessment, your escape routes and fire doors, your alarm, lighting and extinguishers, and the people who have to act in an emergency. You check some of these daily, some weekly, some monthly and some once a year, and you write each result down. This page gives you the checks, the rhythm and the records, in a form you can use in a shop, office, pub, salon or village hall.

One point first. A checklist helps you manage fire safety day to day, but it does not replace the fire risk assessment itself. Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service says plainly that completing a checklist does not count as a recorded fire risk assessment. Think of the assessment as the plan and the checklist as the proof you are following it.

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TL;DR

Start with a recorded fire risk assessment. Your checklist then keeps it alive between reviews.
Check exits and escape routes daily, test the alarm weekly, check emergency lighting and extinguishers monthly, and book a competent contractor for the annual alarm and lighting inspection.
Record every check, every fault, who is fixing it and the date it was fixed.
Rules on recording differ by nation: England and Wales now expect the full assessment recorded, while Northern Ireland ties recording to staff numbers, licensing or an alterations notice.
Paper or digital both work. What matters is that the record is complete and easy to produce.

Who is responsible for fire checks in your workplace

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which applies in England, the Responsible Person must carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, provide and maintain adequate fire safety measures, make sure employees and visitors know what to do in a fire, and keep the assessment under review. The GOV.UK guide for small non-domestic premises sets this out and also expects a record of the assessment and the fire safety arrangements.

Responsible Person fire safety duties summary

In practice the Responsible Person is usually the employer, the owner or the manager in control of the premises. If you manage a village hall, a pub or a unit in a shared building, work out early who holds that duty for which parts of the building, and agree who does the routine checks. Many missed checks happen because everybody assumed somebody else was doing them.

The five-step assessment your checklist should sit on

The GOV.UK five-step fire risk assessment checklist gives a simple frame. Your routine checks should map back to it:

Identify fire hazards. Electrical equipment, smoking, arson, heating, cooking, housekeeping and contractors.
Identify people at risk. Including young people, disabled people and lone workers.
Evaluate and act. Look at the number and location of exits, fire alarms, exit signs, emergency lighting and extinguishers.
Record, plan and train. Write down what you found and what you decided, and train staff.
Review. Revisit the assessment regularly and note a review date.

If you do not yet have a written assessment, do that before anything else. Your recurring checklist only makes sense once you know what your premises need.

The fire inspection checklist, by frequency

The most useful way to organise fire checks is by how often they happen. The frequencies below follow the GOV.UK small premises guide, with extra daily detail from fire and rescue service log books.

Daily checks (before opening)

All exit doors are unlocked and can be opened easily from inside.
Escape routes are clear of stock, boxes, bins and deliveries, and the floor is in good condition.
Fire doors are closed unless they are held open by an approved self-closing device linked to the alarm.
The fire alarm panel shows normal, with no fault lights.
Extinguishers are in place and visible.
The area outside final exits is clear.

The Essex Fire and Rescue Service log book lists very similar daily questions, including whether exit signs and emergency lighting are in good condition. Avon Fire and Rescue Service notes that daily and weekly checks are not mandatory but are good practice, because they catch problems early and keep everyone in the building safer.

Weekly checks

Test the fire alarm, using a different manual call point each week, and confirm that everyone who needs to hear it can.
Check that fire-resisting doors on stairways close properly.
Record the call point used, the result and who tested it.

Rotating the call point means that over a few months you have exercised every one, and your log shows it.

Monthly checks

Run a functional test of every emergency escape lighting unit.
Visually check all fire extinguishers: in place, undamaged, pin and seal intact, pressure gauge in the correct range where fitted.
Test domestic-type smoke alarms if you have them, for example in a flat above a shop.

These monthly steps come from the same GOV.UK guide.

Annual checks

Have the fire alarm system and emergency escape lighting inspected and tested by a competent contractor.
Review the fire risk assessment, and review it sooner after any change that affects risk, such as a refit, a new storage area or a jump in staff numbers.
Carry out at least one fire drill and record the result. GOV.UK workplace fire safety guidance says to do this and to record the results as part of your fire safety and evacuation plan.

The University of Edinburgh goes further for its own buildings, with daily, weekly, monthly, three-monthly, six-monthly and annual checks in a log book for every premises. A small business will not need that many tiers, but it shows how a log book can be layered as your building gets more complex.

A quick reference table

Check	How often	Who can do it	What to record
Exits unlocked, routes clear	Daily	Any trained staff member	Date, initials, any obstruction removed
Alarm panel normal	Daily	Any trained staff member	Normal or fault description
Alarm test (one call point)	Weekly	Nominated person	Call point, result, who tested
Fire doors close properly	Weekly	Nominated person	Door, defect, action
Emergency lighting test	Monthly	Nominated person	Units tested, any failures
Extinguisher visual check	Monthly	Nominated person	Location, condition, action
Alarm and lighting servicing	Annually	Competent contractor	Certificate, defects, date
Fire drill	At least once a year	Responsible Person	Time to evacuate, problems, actions
Risk assessment review	Regularly, and after changes	Responsible Person	Review date, changes made

Beyond the basics: what a fuller inspection looks at

A fire and rescue service business check goes a little wider than the routine rounds. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service structures its check in three parts: gathering information about your fire safety management, a visual check of the premises, and a summary with a score. The documents it asks you to have ready are a useful list for any small business:

Your fire risk assessment and evacuation policy.
Maintenance records for fire safety equipment.
Evidence of staff fire training.

The visual check covers fire doors, alarm panels, emergency lighting and extinguishers, which is why your own weekly and monthly rounds are good preparation.

Is your workplace ready for a fire safety visit?

People searching for how to pass a fire safety inspection are usually asking one question: if an officer turned up today, could you show that you are in control? Work through this list.

Can you produce a written fire risk assessment with a review date? England, Wales and, in set circumstances, Northern Ireland expect one on record.
Can you show the last twelve months of checks with no unexplained gaps?
Can you show what happened when something failed, who fixed it and when?
Do you have the annual alarm and emergency lighting certificates to hand?
Do staff know the evacuation plan, and is there a record of the last drill?
Are exits and escape routes clear right now? This is what an officer sees first.

The common failing is not a missing extinguisher. It is a record that cannot show follow-through.

Recording: what the law expects in each nation

The rules on written records differ across the UK, so say which nation you are in when you ask for advice.

England: the Responsible Person must keep a record of the fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements, as set out in the GOV.UK small premises guide.
Wales: GOV.WALES guidance on section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 says all Responsible Persons must record their completed assessment and fire safety arrangements in full in all circumstances. This replaced the earlier rule that only required significant findings to be written down in cases such as five or more employees.
Northern Ireland: the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service states that information must be recorded where there are five or more employees, the premises are licensed or registered, or an alterations notice requires it. TourismNI lists what significant findings should include, from hazards and people at risk to training needs.
Scotland: fire safety duties are set under Scottish legislation, so check with Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for your premises.

Whatever your nation, recording routine checks is the simplest way to show the measures in your assessment are being maintained. Avon Fire and Rescue Service points out that keeping records of checks, tests and maintenance helps demonstrate due diligence under the Fire Safety Order, and that logs can be kept electronically or on paper.

Recording faults and follow-up actions

A tick in a box is only half a record. The useful part is what happens when the answer is “no”. For every fault, note:

What was found and where.
The date it was reported.
Who owns the fix.
The action taken and the date it was completed.

Avon’s guidance asks for exactly this: remedial action taken and the date the fault was reported, with logs completed in full. Treat a failed emergency light or a propped fire door as a small project with an owner and a deadline, not a note on a clipboard.

People at work also need to know what to do. A short course on workplace occupancy management training can help whoever manages your building think through headcount, staff preparedness and evacuation planning.

Fire checks alongside your wider health and safety checks

Most small businesses fold fire checks into a general workplace inspection. The HSE says effective monitoring can include regular, planned workplace checks, maintenance, refresher training and investigation of accidents and near misses. A sensible monthly walk-round adds these to the fire items:

First aid: the HSE’s basic list for low-risk businesses includes providing first aid and displaying the law poster. Check the first-aid kit is stocked and in date, and that staff know who the first aider or appointed person is.
Electrical equipment: look for damaged plugs, taped cables, exposed wires and burn marks, and take anything suspect out of use.
Walkways and housekeeping: trailing cables, slippery floors, cluttered storerooms.
Lighting, temperature and welfare: drinking water, toilets, washing facilities and rest areas. The GMB inspection checklist is a good prompt list that spans lighting, housekeeping, emergency exits, electrical safety, hazardous substances, first aid and welfare.
Display screen use and manual handling: relevant in offices and stockrooms. The FSB regulations guide names the main regulations behind these, including those for workplace welfare and risk assessment.

Office specifics

Offices tend to fail on small, creeping things: a fire door wedged open for convenience, boxes stacked in a corridor, a kitchenette with no clear plan for a cooking fire, a server cupboard used as storage. Walk your routes at the start of the day and look at them as a stranger would.

Shop and salon specifics

Stock is the main enemy of escape routes. Check back-of-house exits, delivery areas and stockroom doors as carefully as the shop floor. In a salon, add a look at hair dryers, heated tools and chemical storage.

Salon owner checking heated styling tools and chemicals

Pub and village hall specifics

Shared and changing use is the challenge. A hall may host a toddler group in the morning and a function at night, so the number of people and the layout change. Check the layout of chairs and tables against the exits before each event, and make sure whoever opens up knows how to read the alarm panel.

Perspective

We built Gribit because the problem with fire checks is rarely knowing what to check. It is remembering to do it, and then being able to show you did.

On a busy Tuesday, the weekly alarm test slips, the notebook ends up in a drawer, and a month later nobody can say which call point was last tested. A paper logbook does not remind anyone and cannot tell you a check is overdue. We designed Gribit so recurring checks are scheduled, reminders go out automatically, results are recorded in one place, and follow-up actions stay visible until they are closed.

We also think handover matters more than people expect. When a manager leaves or a rota changes, a central record means the next person sees what is due, what failed and where the certificates are, instead of starting from a blank page.

A checklist is not a risk assessment, and we would never say it is. But a dependable record of the checks that support your assessment is what lets you spend your time fixing problems rather than chasing paperwork.

Jon

Keep your fire checks in one place

If you are tired of paper sheets going missing, Gribit is a digital logbook for small businesses. You can schedule recurring checks such as fire alarm tests and first-aid kit inspections, record results, manage follow-up actions, store certificates and documents, give staff access, and export your records when someone asks for them. You can organise checks by site, item or location.

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FAQ

How often should a small business carry out fire checks?

GOV.UK’s small premises guidance suggests daily checks of exits, weekly alarm tests using a different call point each time, monthly emergency lighting and extinguisher checks, and an annual inspection of the alarm and emergency lighting by a competent contractor. You should also hold at least one fire drill a year. Review the fire risk assessment regularly and after any significant change.

Is a fire safety checklist the same as a fire risk assessment?

No. A fire risk assessment is the formal legal document that identifies hazards, people at risk and the measures needed. A checklist is a management tool for carrying out and evidencing the routine checks that support it. Fire and rescue services such as Devon and Somerset say that completing a checklist does not count as a recorded assessment.

Do I have to keep written records of fire checks?

The assessment and arrangements must be recorded in England and Wales, while Northern Ireland ties recording to employee numbers, licensing or an alterations notice. Routine daily and weekly checks are described by fire services such as Avon as good practice rather than mandatory, but they are the easiest way to show your measures are maintained. Records can be on paper or electronic.

What should I do if a check finds a fault?

Record what you found, the date it was reported, who is responsible for fixing it and the date it was resolved. Deal with anything affecting escape, such as a blocked exit or a failed alarm, immediately, and call a competent contractor for equipment repairs. Keep the completed entry so you can show the fault was closed.