NOW A LEGAL DUTY
What is a person-centred fire risk assessment?
Since April 2026, responsible persons for certain residential buildings have had to offer one to every resident whose ability to evacuate is compromised. Here is what it covers, who it applies to, and what it is not.
It asks one narrow question
ONE RESIDENT, NOT THE BUILDING
In a fire, what stops this person getting out, and what can be done about it. That is the whole scope. A person-centred fire risk assessment is about an individual resident and their own home, not about the building's fire strategy.
It is now a named duty. Regulation 6 of the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 requires the responsible person to offer one to every resident identified as having a compromised ability to evacuate, and to carry one out for any of those residents who requests it.
An offer is not the same as assessing everybody. The duty is to offer to all those identified, and to deliver for those who take it up. Recording both the offer and the response is what makes the position defensible later.
The regulations set the scope themselves. A PCFRA assesses the risks arising from that resident's compromised ability to evacuate without assistance, and any other risks to them in that building in light of their cognitive or physical impairment or condition. Nothing broader.
Not every block, and not every resident
NARROWER THAN IT SOUNDS
The duty does not reach every block. It applies to a specified residential building, which means two or more sets of domestic premises plus any one of these three.
The building test
18 metres or taller
Measured to the top storey, in accordance with Appendix D to Approved Document B.
Seven storeys or more
Storeys below ground are ignored. A mezzanine counts as a storey if its internal floor area is at least half that of the largest above-ground storey.
Over 11 metres on simultaneous evacuation
Where the responsible person has determined that everyone should leave immediately in a fire, rather than stay put.
Then the two questions that follow
Which residents
A relevant resident lives there as their only or principal residence, and their ability to evacuate without assistance is compromised by a cognitive or physical impairment or condition.
Not every resident who needs help with daily living. The test is evacuation.
Who holds the duty
The responsible person for the building. It cannot be delegated away, though the assessment work itself can be commissioned out.
We sell no works, so there is nothing for us to specify at the end of one.
The third limb is the one that catches people out. It turns on the responsible person's own determination of the evacuation strategy, not on a measurement, so two buildings of identical height can land on opposite sides of it.
What the duty actually asks of you
FIVE STEPS, IN ORDER
Regulations 5 and 6
Identify, then offer
Work out which residents have a compromised ability to evacuate, then offer each of them an assessment. Carry one out for anyone who asks for one.
Record the offer and the answer. A resident who declines is a documented decision, not a gap.
Regulation 6
Assess the person, in their own home
What compromises their escape without assistance, and what else puts them at risk in that building given their impairment or condition. Both limbs, not just mobility.
Regulation 7
Put reasonable and proportionate measures in place
Discuss them with the resident first, then carry them out. Cost decides who pays, and the rules are specific.
The responsible person can bear the cost. It can be shared across residents only where the measure would benefit most of them. Where a measure's cost falls on the individual resident, it need not be carried out unless they pay.
Regulation 8
Agree the approach, then write it down
Use reasonable endeavours to agree with the resident how they will evacuate. Where it is agreed, record it as an emergency evacuation statement and give them a copy.
Reasonable endeavours, not agreement at all costs. Where no approach is agreed, the duty to keep reviewing still runs.
Regulation 9
Review every twelve months
The clock starts when the statement is first recorded, or when the assessment is completed if no approach was agreed. Then every twelve months after that.
Sooner if there is reason to believe the assessment or statement needs amending, or if the resident reasonably asks. An early review resets the twelve months.
Running underneath all five: data protection
Everything above involves information about a person's impairment or condition. Regulation 12 is explicit that nothing in the Regulations requires or authorises processing that would breach data protection law, while the duty itself counts when judging whether it would.
In practice that means lawful basis, retention and who gets to see a statement are decisions to take deliberately, at the start, not after the first request to share one.
Myth
"It changes how the building evacuates."
Reality
It does not. The evacuation strategy is a separate determination by the responsible person about how the building performs in fire.
The relationship runs the other way. Under regulation 3, a simultaneous evacuation strategy is one of the things that can bring a building over 11 metres into scope in the first place.
Myth
"Every resident in the block needs one."
Reality
Only relevant residents, meaning those whose ability to evacuate without assistance is compromised by a cognitive or physical impairment or condition.
And then it is an offer to all of them, with an assessment carried out for those who request one. Not a blanket exercise across every flat.
Myth
"It is a fire risk assessment for the flat."
Reality
It assesses a person, not premises. Compartmentation, alarm coverage and the general fire precautions belong to the building fire risk assessment and stay there.
A PCFRA that starts commenting on the fabric has drifted outside what regulation 6 asks for.
Myth
"If the resident will not engage, we are exposed."
Reality
Regulation 8 asks for reasonable endeavours to agree the approach, not agreement at any cost. Where no approach is agreed, there is simply no statement to record.
The review duty still runs, and the record of what was offered, discussed and attempted is what stands behind the decision.
Where this gets misread
FOUR THINGS IT IS NOT
Go deeper
KEEP READING
The service
Resident engagement and PEEPs
How we run the identification, the assessments and the review cycle, with no works to sell at the end of it.
See the service →
The wider duty
Residential PEEPs, all seven duties
The PCFRA is duty two. This is the whole regime, from identifying residents to the building plan.
Read the guide →
Tool
PEEPs readiness check
Work through whether the duty reaches your building and what you already have in place.
Run the check →
Related
Building evacuation strategies
The separate question of how a building performs in fire, and the thing that can pull an 11 metre block into scope.
Read the guide →
Not the same thing
Fire risk assessments
The assessment of the premises, which a PCFRA sits alongside rather than replaces.
See the service →
Plain English
Jargon Buster
PCFRA, RPEEP, relevant resident, responsible person. Every term on this page, defined.
Look it up →
Who is carrying these out for you?
We assess, record and review. We sell no works, so there is nothing for us to specify at the end of it.