The most common answer given to this question is annually, and it is not what the law says. The fire safety order requires the responsible person to keep the assessment under review and to revise it if it is no longer valid or if there has been a significant change. That is an event driven duty rather than a calendar one, and a yearly interval is a sensible management practice layered on top of it.
What the order actually requires
Review when the assessment is no longer valid, or when there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates. Both tests are about the building and its use rather than about elapsed time. An assessment that was right in January and describes a building that has since been reconfigured is invalid in March, whatever the date on its cover.
The triggers that force a review
A change to the building fabric or layout. A change of use or occupancy, including more people or different people. New processes, new equipment or new substances. A fire or a near miss. A change to the fire safety systems. A significant change in the mobility profile of the occupants. Enforcement action or new guidance that bears on the premises. Any one of these is a reason to look again regardless of when the last review was.
Why annual review is still good practice
Because buildings change without anybody recording that they have, and a yearly scheduled read catches the accumulated small changes that nobody treated as significant on their own. It also produces a dated record of active management, which is what an enforcing officer is looking for when they ask how the duty holder knows the assessment is current.
Review is not the same as a new assessment
A review can conclude that the assessment remains valid and record that conclusion with a date. That is a legitimate and cheap outcome and it is better evidence than an unchanged document with no review record. A significant change, by contrast, usually means the assessment has to be redone rather than annotated.
How often should a legionella risk assessment be reviewed too
The same logic applies and the triggers are different in kind. A legionella assessment is reviewed when the system or its use changes, and the changes that matter are a new or removed outlet, a change of use that leaves part of the system stagnant, work on the tank or the cylinder, a change in the water supply, a case of illness associated with the building, or a period of closure, which is the trigger most often missed and the one that caught many buildings during extended vacancies. Absent a change, a review at least every two years is the commonly cited interval for a simple system, with annual review where the assessment is more complex or the population more vulnerable. As with fire, the review is recorded even when nothing is altered, because a review that changed nothing is itself the finding that the controls are still appropriate.
Other questions people ask
Is there a legal annual requirement?
No. The requirement is to keep it under review and revise it when it is no longer valid or when there has been a significant change. Annual review is practice, not statute.
Does a new tenant trigger a review?
A change of occupancy that changes the risk does. A like for like tenant in the same use may not, and the judgement should be recorded either way.
Who decides whether a change is significant?
The responsible person, on advice if necessary. The safe course is to record the reasoning, because the decision not to review is the one that has to be defended later.
What does a fire risk assessment review actually involve?
Reading the existing assessment against the building as it is now: has anything changed in the layout, the use, the occupancy or the people, and did the previous actions get done. Where nothing has changed it is a short exercise, and it is still worth dating.
When should you review a risk assessment, fire or otherwise?
On a change and on a schedule, with the change doing most of the work. A change means the premises, the process, the people, the substances, the equipment or the occupancy has moved in a way that could alter the risk, and it includes a near miss or an incident, which is a review trigger even when nothing was damaged. The schedule is a backstop for the changes nobody noticed, typically annual, and it is the review most often skipped because nothing looks different. A review that records the date and the words no change is still a review; a document with no review date at all is the finding.
Who is responsible for ensuring that risk assessments are undertaken?
The employer, or in premises the person who has control to the extent of that control, and it cannot be delegated away. What can be delegated is the doing: a competent person inside the organisation, a consultant, or a contractor for their own work, and the duty holder then has to be satisfied the assessment is suitable and sufficient, which means reading it rather than filing it. In a company the directors carry it collectively and one should be named for health and safety. In a block of flats it is the responsible person for the common parts, which is usually the freeholder or the managing agent acting for them.