Fire safety enforcement response checklist. A printable checklist for responding to a fire and rescue service audit, an informal notice, an enforcement notice or a prohibition notice — what to gather, who to tell and what to do with the deadline.
This is a checklist for getting organised, not legal advice, and nothing on it is a substitute for a fire safety solicitor or a competent fire engineer. What FireOptix does is make the evidence producible on the day it is asked for — which is the part most responders are short of.
What is on the sheet
- What was received, from whom, on what date, and the date anything in it has to be done by
- Which premises and which parts of them the notice concerns, where more than one responsible person is involved
- The records to gather: the fire risk assessment, the testing and servicing history, training and drill records and the open action list
- Who to tell, including the building owner, managing agent, insurer and anybody else with a duty in the same building
- What a response needs to contain, and the difference between agreeing a programme and disputing the finding
- A deadline, appeal-window and completion tracker, and a prompt to take specialist advice early rather than at the end
Why this record matters
The documents a fire and rescue service can serve are not the same as each other, and the first mistake is treating them as one thing. An informal notification, an enforcement notice and a prohibition notice carry different consequences and different time limits, and the one that restricts use of a building takes effect in a way the others do not.
What this checklist is for is the first week. Almost every bad outcome comes from the same place: the notice sits with one person, the records are gathered late, the other duty-holders in the building are told last, and the deadline is met with a letter nobody had time to get right.
Where more than one responsible person has duties in a building — an owner, a managing agent, employers of staff in it — the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Order's cooperation requirements matter immediately. A notice addressed to one of them is rarely a matter for one of them.
This page does not tell you what to say. Enforcement is a legal process with appeal rights and time limits attached, and the checklist's most important line is the one that says to take specialist advice early. It is a list of what to have ready, not a defence.
Use it with
- Fire safety audit checklistA printable audit checklist for checking that fire safety management is actually happening — the records, the testing, the training and the open actions — as distinct from assessing the risk itself.
- Fire log bookA printable fire log book: a cover, an index of what belongs in it, and record pages for the tests, services, drills, training and findings that make up a premises' fire safety history.
- Fire risk assessment templateA printable fire risk assessment form, covering the premises, the people at risk, the hazards, the fire safety measures already in place and the significant findings that come out of it.
- Fire safety arrangements recordA pro-forma for writing down who does what on fire safety — the responsible person, the competent persons assisting, the wardens, and the arrangements for testing, training and review.
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© 2026 FireOptix. Free to print, copy and use in your business. Not for resale. Please keep this notice.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Written for England and Wales. General guidance, not legal advice. Checked October 2026.