Fire Risk Assessment for Churches in Nottingham

Churches, chapels, mosques, temples, village halls and community centres. Historic and listed buildings assessed by people who understand what you are not allowed to change.

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✓ Listed building aware✓ Volunteer-led premises✓ Hall and lettings covered✓ Plain-English reports

Places of Worship Are Covered by the Fire Safety Order

This surprises a lot of church officers. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to places of worship and community buildings just as it does to a shop or an office. The responsible person is whoever has control of the premises – usually the incumbent, the churchwardens, the parochial church council, the trustees or the management committee.

Where a building is hired out for other uses – a toddler group, a choir, a polling station, a night shelter, a wedding reception – the responsible person’s duties extend to those uses too. You are responsible for people you have never met, doing something you did not organise, in a building you may only visit on Sundays.

Listed status limits your options, and a good assessment says soA great many Nottinghamshire places of worship are listed. You cannot simply fit modern fire doors, run surface conduit or install signage wherever it would be most convenient – that needs listed building consent, or a faculty in the case of Church of England buildings. An assessment that recommends wholesale door replacement in a Grade II* church has been written by someone who has not considered consent, and it will sit in a drawer unactioned. We recommend what can realistically be done.

What We Assess

✓Means of escape – exit capacity against realistic occupancy at the busiest service or event
✓Whether side and vestry doors are genuinely usable or locked, obstructed or painted shut
✓Ignition sources – candles, votive stands, portable heaters, kitchen equipment
✓Electrical installation condition, particularly ageing wiring and temporary extension leads
✓Heating systems, including boiler rooms, gas appliances and portable heaters in winter
✓The organ, sound and lighting systems and associated cabling
✓Historic timber – roof structure, galleries, pews, screens and panelling
✓Towers, spires, belfries and roof voids where fire can spread unseen
✓Detection and alarm provision proportionate to a building that is empty much of the week
✓Emergency lighting for evening services and winter afternoons
✓Church hall, kitchen and meeting rooms, including hirer arrangements
✓Arson and security risk – an unattended building with public access is a known target
✓Evacuation procedure workable by volunteers rather than trained staff

Where Fires Actually Start

Places of worship do not usually burn because of anything exotic. The causes are consistent and mostly preventable.

The Volunteer Problem

Most churches and community halls have no paid staff on site. The people who would manage an evacuation are volunteers, often elderly, frequently different from one week to the next, and they have had no training. A procedure that assumes a trained fire marshal is a procedure that will not happen.

We write evacuation arrangements for the people who are actually there. That usually means something short enough to fit on one laminated sheet, with named roles tied to jobs people already do – whoever is on welcome duty, whoever is serving refreshments – rather than a formal structure nobody will fill.

Hiring Your Building Out

Lettings are where the liability quietly accumulates. If a hirer uses your hall, you remain the responsible person for the building’s fire safety. Practical requirements: a documented maximum occupancy, a hirer briefed on exits and the alarm, exits unlocked and unobstructed for the whole booking, and no unagreed changes to the layout. A hall set out with stacked chairs across a fire exit for a one-off event is the classic finding, and it is also the one most likely to matter.

Nottinghamshire Places of Worship

We cover the city and county, from the medieval churches of the Lace Market and city centre through to suburban parish churches, chapels, mosques, temples, gurdwaras and village halls across Nottinghamshire. Building age varies enormously, and so do the constraints – a Victorian chapel with a single entrance and a gallery raises quite different questions from a 1970s community hall with adequate exits but an unmaintained alarm.

Pricing

Places of worship and community buildings are among the most affordable premises to assess, because they are usually a single open space plus ancillary rooms.

Premises	Starting price	Notes
Small chapel or meeting room	From £250	Single space
Parish church or mosque	From £300	Main worship space plus vestry
Church with attached hall	From £400	Both buildings assessed
Large or listed building with tower	From £500	Tower and roof voids included
Village or community hall	From £250	Includes lettings guidance

A note on costWe are aware that churches and community groups are usually working from a small budget and that this is money raised locally. If your building is straightforward, the price will be at the lower end and we will say so rather than quoting for complexity that is not there. If you genuinely do not need an assessment, we will tell you that too.

How to Spot a Bad Fire Risk Assessment

There is a pattern in this industry worth knowing about before you book anyone, including us. An assessor quotes noticeably below everyone else, spends a short time on site, and produces a report listing a long set of deficiencies. The following day an email arrives quoting for the remedial works. The assessment was never really the product.

Our position on thisWe do not sell fire doors, alarm systems, extinguishers, signage or any other remedial work. We have no financial interest in what the assessment finds. If your building is compliant, the report says so.

Warning signs worth taking seriously

!A quote given without asking about the size, layout or use of the building
!An inspection that takes twenty minutes for a large or multi-storey premises
!A report that arrives alongside, or just before, a quote for remedial works
!Findings that do not match the building, or generic wording that could describe anywhere
!Existing compliant equipment not recorded, making the premises look worse than it is
!No register number, no professional indemnity limit, no sample report offered

Six questions to ask any assessor

Ask these of us and of whoever else you are considering. A competent assessor answers all six without hesitation: their register number and tier under BS 8674:2025 and the IFSM register; their professional indemnity limit; whether you can see a sample report; whether they have assessed this building type before; whether they sell the works they recommend; and which type of assessment, Type 1 to Type 4, you are being quoted for.

Get a Free Quote

Tell us about your premises and a local assessor will get back to you with a fixed quote and available dates. No obligation.

Prefer to talk? Call 0115 647 8715 · lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to places of worship in the same way as to commercial premises. The responsible person is whoever controls the building – typically the incumbent, churchwardens, PCC or trustees. If five or more people are employed, the significant findings must be recorded in writing, and in practice a written assessment is expected by insurers regardless.

Not without consent. Listed building consent, or a faculty for Church of England buildings, is required for alterations affecting historic fabric. In most cases the better route is upgrading existing historic doors to improve their performance rather than replacing them, which is a specialist job. Any assessment recommending wholesale replacement in a listed building has not taken consent into account.

Yes, and the assessment is not there to stop you using them. What matters is control – stable non-combustible holders, adequate separation from textiles, banners and greenery, a named person responsible for extinguishing them, and a documented check before the building is locked. Votive candle stands left burning in an empty church are a different matter and do need managing.

You are. The responsible person under the Fire Safety Order is whoever controls the premises, and that does not transfer to a hirer. Practically this means setting a maximum occupancy, briefing the hirer on exits and the alarm, and making sure exits stay unlocked and clear for the duration of the booking.

Annual review is the practical standard for places of worship. A review is also needed after any building work, a change in how the building is used, the start of a significant new letting, or any fire or near-miss. If your assessment predates a reordering or a new heating system, it is out of date.