Almost every fire risk assessment quote names a standard, and the one named most often is PAS 79. It is worth knowing exactly what that claim is: PAS 79 is a published methodology for carrying out and recording an assessment, not a law, not a certificate and not a guarantee that the person applying it was competent. Knowing the difference is how you read a quote that leans on it.
What it is, and what it is not
A publicly available specification setting out a structured method: gather the information about the building and its occupants, identify the hazards and the people at risk, evaluate the existing measures, reach a judgement on the risk, and record it in a stated form with an action plan. It is a way of working. Nothing in it is a legal requirement, and following it does not make a report correct if the person doing it could not recognise what they were looking at.
Why an assessor quotes PAS79 in a proposal
Because it tells a buyer what shape the report will arrive in and makes two quotes comparable. That is a real benefit and it is also where it gets over claimed: a proposal naming the standard and saying nothing about who attends, what their competence is or how long they will be on site has told you about the format and nothing about the work.
Where the fire risk assessment legislation actually sits
The duty comes from the Fire Safety Order: article 9 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment and the recording of the significant findings, and article 11 requires arrangements for acting on it. The Order sets the outcome and is silent on the format, which is precisely the gap a published methodology fills. Read a proposal in that order: the law first, the method second.
What an FRA fire risk assessment report should contain whatever method is used
The premises and the date, who carried it out and on what basis of competence, the hazards found and the people at risk, the condition of the measures the building relies on, a judgement with reasons, and an action plan with priorities and owners. If a report is missing any of those, naming a standard on its cover has not supplied them.
Questions people ask about pas 79
Is PAS 79 a legal requirement?
No. The duty comes from the Fire Safety Order, which requires a suitable and sufficient assessment and says nothing about the format. PAS 79 is a published method for doing and recording one.
Does a PAS 79 report mean the assessor is competent?
No. It describes the method and the format. Competence is a separate question, answered by the person's training, experience with this building type and any third party registration, which is what a proposal should state alongside the standard.
How does it relate to the types of assessment for flats?
The types describe how far the assessment goes into the construction of a block. The methodology describes how the exercise is run and recorded. A report can be both a type 2 and follow the published method.
What should I ask for beyond the standard being named?
Who attends, their competence for this building type, how long they will be on site, whether any opening up is included, and what the action plan will look like. Those tell you what you are buying; the standard tells you the shape it arrives in.
What is a type 4 FRA, and when is one needed?
The four types describe how far a fire risk assessment of a block of flats looks, and they come from the sector guidance rather than from the Order. Type 1 is the common parts, non destructive, and is the default. Type 2 adds destructive opening up in the common parts where there is reason to doubt the construction. Type 3 adds the flats themselves, non destructively. Type 4 is the most intrusive: common parts and flats, with destructive inspection in both. A type 4 is commissioned where there is real doubt about compartmentation between flats, usually after a fire, an intrusive survey elsewhere in the block or a cladding investigation, and not as a routine review.