Fire Safety Audits in Cumbria: The Data
Fire safety enforcement varies more between areas of the country than most responsible persons realise, so we analysed the official data to see how Cumbria compares. We worked from two datasets published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: FIRE1202, which records the fire safety audits each fire and rescue authority carries out and their outcomes, and FIRE1204, which records the enforcement action taken and the duties cited where premises fall short, both covering the ten years to the financial year ending March 2025. We isolated Cumbria and its North West neighbours, calculated the share of audits found unsatisfactory, broke the results down by type of premises while pooling three years so the sector figures are stable, measured how much of the building stock is actually inspected, and cross-referenced the independent HMICFRS inspection grade for the service. What follows is what that analysis shows for Cumbria.
Where Cumbria stands
In the year ending March 2025, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service carried out 768 fire safety audits, of which 60.9 per cent were unsatisfactory. That placed Cumbria 33rd of the 44 fire and rescue authorities in England, above the England average of 41.8 per cent, reflecting a small service that directs its audits firmly at the highest-risk premises.
Within the North West, Cumbria sits towards the higher end for unsatisfactory results, with a small and tightly focused inspection programme.
These figures show how many audited premises were found compliant. Services choose which premises to audit and record their outcomes in their own way, so we set them out here to help responsible persons understand what fire safety inspection looks like in their area.
The trend over time
Cumbria’s rate has risen across the period, from 29.8 per cent in 2016/17, climbing fairly steadily to 60.9 per cent.
It has moved from below the England average to above it, during years when the national figure was also rising, on its way to 41.8 per cent.
Which premises fail most often
The county average covers a wide range of building types, and this is where the data becomes useful to an individual owner. Breaking the audits down by premises type, and pooling the last three years so the sector figures are stable, the likelihood of an unsatisfactory result varied considerably.
The buildings most likely to fail an audit in Cumbria were hospitals, hmos and other sleeping accommodation, with licensed premises close behind, while schools and factories sat at the lower end. If you run an HMO, a care home or any premises where people sleep, your sector’s record is good reason to keep the fire risk assessment current, since these are the premises where inspectors most often find shortcomings.
How likely your building is to be audited
The same breakdown answers a different question that owners often ask, which is how likely their type of building is to be audited at all. Cumbria audited around 2.0 per cent of its known premises during the year, and that limited resource is directed at the higher-risk end of the building stock.
Almost every known hospital in the county was audited, at 92.9 per cent, alongside more than a third of care homes, while most other premises types saw only a small fraction inspected.
If your premises is one of the more heavily audited types, it is worth understanding what to expect from an FRS fire safety audit before one is arranged.
What premises actually fail on in Cumbria
We also looked at what premises fail on. Because Cumbria carries out a relatively small number of audits, its own article-level breakdown is too thin to give a reliable ranking, so the most representative guide to what premises fall short on is the national picture shown below. Across England in the latest year, fire and rescue services recorded the following duties most often.
The single most common failure nationally, in more than one audit in eight, concerns emergency routes and exits, the blocked corridor, the locked final exit, the missing or unlit sign. Close behind come the maintenance of fire safety equipment and fire doors, the fire risk assessment itself, and the emergency plans that set out what people should do if a fire breaks out. Fire doors are a frequent weak point within the maintenance category, and a fire door inspection is the way to confirm they will hold back fire and smoke as they are meant to.
A large share of these failures concerns people instead of hardware. Staff fire safety training is one of the most common failures in its own right, and alongside it sit failures of emergency procedures, of fire safety arrangements, which a clear fire safety policy addresses, and of informing employees about the risks and what to do. Inspectors do check whether your staff have been trained, whether they know the evacuation procedure, and whether they understand the risks where they work.
Yes, staff training is checkedFire safety training for staff is a legal duty under article 21 of the Fire Safety Order, and it is one of the most common failures premises are found to have neglected. A fire risk assessment identifies the training your staff need, and delivering it is one of the clearest ways a responsible person turns a written assessment into real protection. It is also one of the three services we provide.
What this means for businesses in Cumbria
A service rated good on riskHMICFRS, the independent inspectorate, rates Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service good at understanding the risk of fire, and noted in its most recent inspection that the service had improved how it identifies and targets risk across its communities. Its protection team has long carried out a high number of audits relative to the size of the service.
What do enforcement and prohibition notices mean?If an audit finds a problem, a fire and rescue authority can act formally. An enforcement notice, served under article 30 of the Fire Safety Order, sets out the failings and requires the responsible person to put them right within a stated period. A prohibition notice, under article 31, is more serious, and is used where the risk to life is so great that the use of all or part of a building is restricted or prohibited until the danger is dealt with, sometimes with immediate effect. The most serious breaches can lead to prosecution under article 32.
If you are responsible for a building in Cumbria, we recommend you note the following. The service concentrates its audits on the highest-risk premises, with almost every hospital and more than a third of care homes inspected in the year, so if your building is higher-risk the chance of a visit is real. Failing an audit carries consequences, with 22 enforcement notices and 6 prohibition notices recorded in the latest year. And the failures inspectors record most often fall into three areas, the fire risk assessment itself, the upkeep of fire doors and fire safety equipment, and the training and procedures your staff depend on. Those are precisely the areas we work in, and we provide independent fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training across Cumbria, so that your premises is ready if an audit comes.
About this research and the analystsThis analysis was carried out by Fletcher Risk Management, an independent fire safety consultancy based in Chester. Our assessors are qualified to ABBE Level 4 in fire risk assessment and bring significant hands-on experience of inspecting premises across the region, and we have applied that suitably qualified and experienced judgement to interpret the official data and draw conclusions of practical use to responsible persons. The figures are our own analysis of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government fire statistics, tables FIRE1202 and FIRE1204, for the year ending March 2025, with sector figures pooled over three years and very small samples excluded, and inspection grades taken from published HMICFRS reports. Journalists who would like further comment are welcome to contact us through our contact page.
Be ready for your audit
We provide independent fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training for businesses across Cumbria and the wider region, covering the very things inspectors check. If you would like to discuss your premises, please get in touch.
Get in touchFire Risk AssessmentsThis article is provided for general guidance and does not constitute professional advice for any specific premises. Figures are Fletcher Risk’s analysis of published MHCLG fire statistics (FIRE1202 and FIRE1204, year ending March 2025) and HMICFRS inspection reports, accurate to the source data at the time of writing. Fletcher Risk Management Limited provides Fire Risk Assessments, Fire Door Inspections and Fire Safety Training across the North West, North Wales and the West Midlands.