Nearly half of UK fire safety audits failed last year. That's not a scandal, it's a wake-up call
42% of fire safety audits in 2024/25 came back unsatisfactory. Of 51,026 audits, 21,312 failed. Almost 3,000 premises were served formal notices.
Nearly half of the buildings inspected weren't up to standard.
And the trend is heading the wrong way. Failed audits are up 23% since 2016/17. Formal notices have jumped 46%.
The comfortable explanation, and the uncomfortable one
Writing in this month's Facilities Management Journal, Richard White, Commercial Director at Sertus, offers the comfortable explanation. Since Grenfell, the standards have tightened. The Fire Safety Act 2021, the Building Safety Act 2022, and the 2024 update to BS9991 have raised the bar. The Building Safety Regulator is enforcing properly for the first time.
"There is a proper process in place now, and there wasn't before," he writes.
He's right. Buildings that quietly slipped through aren't slipping through anymore.
The uncomfortable truth is that fire safety in a lot of UK commercial buildings has been treated as a paperwork job for years. Not through carelessness. Through stretched budgets, busy teams, and a system that didn't push back when things were left until tomorrow.
That's changing fast.
What the figures mean for facilities managers
The annual audit has stopped being a tick-box. Auditors expect working systems, current documentation, and a competent person able to answer for the building. Cramming the week before doesn't cut it.
The buildings that pass cleanly all tend to do the same things. Fire drills staff and tenants take seriously. Weekly checks on smoke vents, emergency lighting, extinguishers and smoke dampers, written down. Quarterly smoke ventilation tests, zone by zone, including the secondary power supply. A full annual service signed off by someone qualified to do it.
None of it is complicated. It just has to happen, all year.
Our view
The failure rate isn't going to drop next year. It will climb as the Building Safety Regulator works through more of the stock. Hoping for a sympathetic inspector is not a fire safety strategy.
The cost of fixing fire safety properly is a fraction of the cost of a formal notice, a closed building, or the consequences of a fire.
How Medlec helps
We design, install and maintain fire safety systems for commercial buildings across London and the South East. Fire alarms, emergency lighting, fixed wire testing, and the remedial work that turns a failing audit into a passing one.
If you're not confident your building would pass a fire safety audit tomorrow, the time to find out is now.
Call 0333 344 5949 or contact us for a quote.
Source: Richard White, Commercial Director, Sertus, writing in Facilities Management Journal.
