Third party accreditation (or certification) is the best way for you to gain assurance when sourcing fire safety contractors or products. It provides you with the peace of mind that your suppliers have been independently verified, are regularly audited or certified and are competent to undertake the work you need. It also assures they are working to relevant standards and best practice.
Why is third party accreditation so important?
You wouldn’t use a gas engineer without ensuring they were on the Gas Safe Register, so why use a fire risk assessor, fire sprinkler system installer, fire alarm installer or fire door installer who hasn’t been through similar rigorous approval to gain third party certification. There are currently no legal minimum qualification requirements for many trades and services within the fire industry, so using third party approved contractors is the best way to know your business and staff are in safe hands. As part of the FPA's Know Your Building campaign, we are seeking to help building owners and managers to use third party approved fire safety products and services. We believe this is the best way to ensure competency.
How does it work?
Third party approval is issued to an individual, a company or a product depending on the nature of the scheme. Schemes are defined, administered and audited between professional trade bodies and experienced regulatory bodies (an accreditation body) such as UKAS and Ofqual. The regulatory body (or third party certification body) monitors the robustness, relevance and validity of each scheme and will amend or update parameters as required.
How to find a third-party accredited company
When seeking an accredited third party organisation or service it is a good idea to consult with your insurance provider and follow any specified guidelines before commissioning work to be undertaken.
There are different third-party accrediting bodies for different trades and services. Below are suggested sources of providers for key fire safety work:
Fire Risk Assessors
Sprinkler Installers
Fire Detection and Alarm system installers
|
Company
|
Scheme
|
Third Party certified
|
|
BAFE
|
SP203
|
Yes
|
| Building Research Establishment (BRE) |
LPS 1014 |
Yes |
Fire door installer schemes
|
Company
|
Scheme
|
Third party certified
|
|
Building Research Establishment (BRE)
|
Redbook Live LPS 1531 scheme
|
Yes
|
|
BM Trada
|
Q-Mark fire door installation scheme
|
Yes
|
| BM Trada |
Q-Mark fire door maintainers |
Yes |
|
Association of Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP)
|
ASFP Membership
|
All ASFP members must be third party approved to hold membership
|
Please be aware that considerable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this article at the time of publication, however any legislative (or other) changes that come into effect after this may render the information out of date until it is reviewed and updated as part of the FPA’s content review cycle.