Dear Members and Readers, for this Blog, a photograph of the distinctive ‘three amigos’ from the AGM 2014.  Ken Day (Past President), Ray Colyer (President), and the evergreen Peter Cowland, our erstwhile honorary treasurer at the time.

Apart from all our technical activities we provide for members, we are also still heavily involved in moving the National Benchmark Standard for Fire Risk Assessors competency forward and making it into a full British Standard.  There is a timeline for this, and we are working with a strategy group from the industry and Home Office to achieve this aim by mid-2024.  If this succeeds, we hope it will be accepted under Article 50 of the FSO and as good a mandate that we can have for regulating the competence of fire risk assessors.

There is also the thorny issue of PI insurance.  Again, we are working with the Home Office and other Government Departments through Working Group 4 and the assessor’s strategy group to try and get some traction.   My message to the Government is that in the end, if they don’t tackle the growing PI problem, then no matter how much they want to legislate fire matters, there won’t be any fire risk assessors, fire engineers, fire safety consultants, fire safety managers or fire safety specialists to deal with the number of regulations to provide the capacity to regulate!  It’s hard, very hard now, and I understand the frustration of many members as I have had my own difficulties with PI and ended up having to shop around.  The only answer I can give at the moment is to shop around and see if you can do a deal.

This is also an opportune moment to let members know we have started our random ‘trawl’ of members’ CPD records.  If you are on TFRAR, you will know about this as we check all registrants’ CPD annually.  The Institute has come a long way since it started. We are a professional body highly regarded in the industry, and so are the competence and professionalism of our members.  CPD is part of an individual member’s professional standing and development, and it is an integral part of the rules of membership.  Our annual trawl and check of 10% of the membership has shown that the vast majority keep up their CPD, but it is unfortunate that some don’t think it is necessary. We have had some who, despite final reminders, have not submitted their CPD for scrutiny.  Our rules for membership are clear, and those that haven’t submitted will find themselves suspended or removed from membership.  By the way, nobody is exempt – our Chairman was part of the 10%, and to his credit, he was not found wanting!

I use the CPD link to let members and readers know that we have started in earnest on our technical meeting programme for 2023 and also members’ workshops.  Our Technical Subgroup has a number of subjects that we hope to cover in one or half-day workshops. Just a heads up on all of these activities, when they are advertised, make sure you get your name down early as we are always oversubscribed.  That’s a good and healthy sign and shows that you are active and keen to learn, gather your CPD and support the Institute as it grows.

Finally, talking about growing, our Chairman let me know the other day that we have our first member in the USA!  We are truly worldwide now!

As always, STAY SAFE