Fire risk assessor recruitment in the UK is often treated as a paperwork errand. A facilities lead needs a report on file. A managing agent wants a name to write in a register. A board wants to know that “someone competent” has been through the building. The vacancy then becomes a hunt for a certificate, a postcode, and a date that is not too old. That is how you end up interviewing people who can print a template and people who can actually read a building as the same shortlist.
Viktorija Sherriff does not run that kind of desk. VS Recruitment is a boutique UK headhunter. She opens a named search for a £450 engagement fee and works her own network in the built sector — construction, facilities, property operations, and the compliance roles that sit beside them. She does not scrape job boards. She does not spray CVs because a headline mentioned PAS 79. If you need a fire risk assessor who can stand behind the work, that is a search. It is not a broadcast.
Who the law actually holds responsible
The duty does not move just because you hired someone. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person must take general fire precautions and make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks. GOV.UK is blunt about who that person can be: an employer, owner, landlord, occupier, or anyone else with control of the premises, “for example a facilities manager, building manager, managing agent or risk assessor”. See fire safety in the workplace.
That last list is why this hire matters in facilities and property. A contract manager who commissions assessments is often inside the duty, not adjacent to it. Appointing an assessor does not hand the legal problem to a consultant. Home Office guidance on the amendments made by section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 says it remains the responsible person’s duty to make sure the assessment is suitable and sufficient, even where someone else is engaged to help. The guidance is here: check your fire safety responsibilities under section 156.
What you now have to record, and why volume hiring fails it
Since 1 October 2023, responsible persons have had to record the fire risk assessment in full, record their fire safety arrangements, and record the identity of any individual or organisation engaged to undertake or review the assessment. That is not a filing tip. It is a named person on a document that residents, incoming responsible persons, and enforcing authorities can ask to see.
A job-board spray is a poor way to put a name on that record. You get people who have done low-rise offices and people who talk as if they have done sleeping accommodation. You get people whose last “review” was a date change. You get people who cannot explain how their findings would sit next to another responsible person’s assessment in the same building. The statute expects co-operation between responsible persons in shared premises. A CV that says “fire risk assessor” does not tell you whether someone has ever had to do that work.
GOV.UK also says you can do the assessment yourself with the published guides, and that if you do not have the expertise or time you need to appoint a competent person to help. The fire and rescue authority can advise. It cannot carry out the assessment for you. See fire risk assessments. The hire, then, is not “anyone with a logo”. It is someone you are prepared to name.
Competence is not a logo on a PDF
The Fire Safety Order, as amended, includes a requirement that a person appointed to assist with making or reviewing the assessment must be competent, meaning sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities. Home Office guidance is clear that this particular requirement is to be brought into force at a later date, with further guidance before commencement. The recommendation in the meantime is the same test: if you appoint an assessor, make sure they are actually competent. That is the hiring problem, not a future form.
Viktorija has recruited fire risk assessors as part of a national facilities desk. She will not invent a licence that does not exist, and she will not treat a course attendance certificate as proof that someone can walk a complex site. What she will do is refuse to flatten the brief. A purpose-built block is not a warehouse. Sleeping accommodation is not an office with a kettle. An in-house assessor on an FM contract is not the same hire as an independent named on someone else’s record. If the role needs construction-site awareness, that is a different conversation again, and HSE’s general fire safety on construction sites is the adult reading list for that setting.
The good people are usually already in post, often on a contract where the responsible person is under pressure and would rather not advertise the gap. They move when a headhunter can describe the building type, the duty, and the politics of the client without turning it into a job advert. That is what network-only construction recruitment is for. Fire is not a softer version of that work. It is the same instinct applied to a role where a weak hire shows up in an inspection, not only in a missed KPI.
How a £450 search is supposed to feel
You send a plain brief. Sector: built. Role: in-house fire risk assessor, a contract lead who commissions assessments, or a facilities hire where fire is a material part of the job. Constraints: building type, whether this is confidential, whether you need someone who can sit with other responsible persons and accountable persons on a higher-risk residential building. If it is a fit, you pay £450 and the search opens. Viktorija works people she can already reach. She does not post the role. She does not email fifty lookalikes.
If the brief is not a fit — you want a cheap report by Friday, or you want a hundred “available assessors” — she will say no before anyone pays. That is the point of a boutique practice. UK employers still have ordinary duties while they hire, including right to work checks. None of that is exotic. A careful search does not skip it because the vacancy is “compliance”.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the responsible person for a fire risk assessment?
GOV.UK: an employer, owner, landlord, occupier, or anyone else with control of the premises, including a facilities or building manager. Hiring an assessor does not move that duty.
Can I do my own fire risk assessment?
Yes, if you have the expertise. GOV.UK says you can do it yourself with the published guides. If you do not have the expertise or time, you need to appoint a competent person to help. The fire and rescue authority cannot do the assessment for you.
Do I have to record the fire risk assessor’s name?
Home Office guidance on the section 156 changes says that if you employ a fire risk assessor to assist, you should record their name and, where applicable, their organisation. Responsible persons must also record the assessment in full. That is one reason a named search is a better hiring method than an anonymous CV pile.
What does “competent” mean for a fire risk assessor?
The Order’s wording is sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to assist properly. The specific appointment-competence duty is not yet commenced. The Home Office still recommends applying that test now. A logo is not the test. The work is.
Is fire risk assessor recruitment the same as posting a facilities vacancy?
No. A facilities vacancy that happens to mention fire is not the same brief as an assessor you are prepared to name on the record. The people who can do the work are usually already doing it. They are not refreshing a job board at lunchtime.
How do I start a discreet search?
A short note is enough: the building type, whether this is in-house or a contract, and what “good” looks like after the first inspection. If it is a fit, the £450 fee opens the search. Start a search.
If you are hiring a fire risk assessor, or a facilities lead whose week is built around that duty, that is the conversation. A named search, not a numbers game.