BAFE announces 1000th Registered Company

BAFE has announced that Thomson Fire Consultancy Ltd are the 1000th company to achieve registration under BAFE schemes.

Thomson Fire Consultancy Ltd have been certificated by the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) and registered to the BAFE scheme SP205-1 – for organisations that provide Life Safety Fire Risk Assessments.

Thomson Fire Consultancy is a small company which has been trading since 2005, Jason Thomson, Managing Director of the company became involved three years ago and has not looked back since.  Specialising in health care Jason’s primary concern is providing a service that will help prevent the large fires we have all seen over the last ten years at some of our most famous hospitals.  

Jason works both on his own and closely with a trusted selection of colleagues some of whom he has known since he was in the Fire service.  He explains that although he specialises in health care the company provides Fire safety management and engineering services to all sectors.   Jason explains that he has been very fortunate.  Most of his business has been based on word of mouth recommendation since winning his first contract 3 years ago for the health care sector.  

BAFE scheme SP205 has been developed for Organisations who provide Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment services for others. This scheme is designed to give assurance to those commissioning fire risk assessments and give confidence in the quality and relevance of the services being provided. It is essential that the fire risk assessor is a competent person, and the fire risk assessor has a duty of care to the organisation on which legislation imposes a requirement for the fire risk assessment.

However, the ultimate responsibility for the adequacy of the fire risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, rests with the duty holder (which is normally a company) or responsible person rather than with the fire risk assessor. This Scheme recognises the importance of providing fire risk assessments that comply with an acceptable set of criteria. There are now three Certification Bodies who have received UKAS accreditation to deliver this scheme (SSAIB, Certsure and NSI).  

Jason stated that he recognises the need for customer quality assurance within the fire industry.  He has been involved on a consultancy basis sorting out some of the worst Fire safety management and fire risk assessment problems he has seen.  

He hopes that the BAFE schemes continue to grow, encouraging architects and specifiers to only use BAFE registered companies. Jason explains the process of gaining SP205-1 was challenging but relatively straightforward, as he had already developed strong quality management systems.  He chose the NSI as his accreditation body and is looking forward to continued growth in his business through gaining SP205-1.

Stephen Adams, BAFE Chief Executive said: "Registration to BAFE schemes has seen remarkable growth over recent years and we congratulate Thomson Fire Consultancy on being the 1000th. This growth demonstrates the commitment of fire protection companies, large and small, to achieving third party certification for the benefit of specifiers and end users.”