Fire Safety Consultant
Fire safety consultancy for architects, developers, housing associations, property managers, building engineers, surveyors and insurers across the United Kingdom.
For owners and project teams who need help defining the fire-engineering instruction: start with the location, building use, project stage and the decision you face. Share whatever records you hold. We agree the consultancy output and exclusions before quoting, without assuming a particular service package.
A fire safety consultant is usually brought in for one of three reasons: a design needs a defensible fire-safety basis, a building in occupation needs its risks assessed and recorded, or a regulatory duty needs evidence behind it. We advise on all three across the UK. Because the statutory framework differs between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we confirm the applicable jurisdiction and the building's status before setting scope — then put the scope, assumptions, exclusions and fee in writing.
What a fire safety consultant does
The role covers fire strategy at design stage, fire risk assessment for buildings in occupation, fire safety management arrangements and records, input to fire-safety elements of building control and planning submissions, and support with Building Safety Act 2022 information duties. Advice is evidence and documentation: it informs decisions taken by the client, designers and dutyholders.
How we scope an instruction
We ask for the building address and use, height and storey count, the project stage, the drawings or existing fire-safety documents available, and the decision the work has to support. From that we confirm the assessment route, the standards and guidance we intend to apply, the site access required, what is excluded, and a written fee. Nothing starts before that is agreed.
Choosing a fire safety consultant
Choose fire safety or fire engineering consultants by the project decision: a design fire strategy for proposed work, a fire risk assessment for premises in use, or a separately scoped specialist review. Before appointing anyone, ask for the named individuals who will do the work and their relevant experience, the standards and guidance they intend to apply, their professional indemnity position for the scope in question, and written confirmation of what is excluded. Ask for appointment-specific evidence in writing rather than relying on website claims — including ours.
Working alongside the design team
On live projects we work with architects, structural and M&E consultants and contractors: reviewing drawings, attending design-team meetings, recording fire-safety assumptions as the design develops, and updating the documentation when the design changes. Coordination inputs and the review cycle are defined in the scope so the record stays traceable.
Boundaries of the role
Consultancy advice is not legal advice, not building control approval, and does not transfer dutyholder responsibility. No consultant can guarantee an approval, a compliance determination, a timescale or an insurance or lending outcome. Where an instruction depends on competence, accreditation, authority to sign or insurance cover we cannot evidence, we decline it in writing and say why.
Where to go next
- Fire strategy reporting — Design-stage fire strategy scope and deliverables.
- Fire risk assessment — For buildings already in occupation.
- Fire engineer in London — If the building is in Greater London.
- Retrospective fire strategy — For existing buildings with missing or fragmented design information.
- FRAEW and PAS 9980 — For external wall fire risk appraisal.
- Compartmentation surveys — For scoped visible or intrusive inspection.
- Fire door inspection — For a documented condition review of an agreed door inventory or sample.
- Safety case fire-engineering contribution — Scoped fire-only support for occupied higher-risk buildings in England; the Principal Accountable Person retains responsibility for the wider report.
- Gateway 2 fire-safety support — Fire-safety evidence for higher-risk building control applications in England.
- Fire safety management — Management arrangements and records for buildings in occupation.
- Heritage and listed building fire consultancy
- CFD fire and smoke modelling
- Cladding and façade remediation support
Major-project experience
Our major-project work brings together a package of consultancy services. Explore these selected projects for their building context and our role. For your project, the service scope is agreed against its jurisdiction, stage and information available.
- Sellafield Nuclear Facility
Cumbria, UK
Independent Fire Engineering Lead on a confidential project within the Sellafield nuclear estate, working alongside Lindner Group for Morgan Sindall under ONR oversight.
- Battersea Power Station
London, UK
Post-Grenfell façade risk leadership and integrated fire strategy across a £9bn urban masterplan — Phases 1, 2, 3A and 3B. Over 2,400 residential units, commercial podiums, and Network Rail interface.
- NHS Framework — Hillingdon & Mount Vernon Hospitals
London, UK
Independent Third-Party Fire Engineering Reviewer under NHS framework for refurbishment and reconditioning works at live hospital environments serving vulnerable patient populations.
Related Services
Speak to a Fire Safety Consultant
Send the building details, jurisdiction and project stage and we will confirm scope, approach and fee in writing.