Fire Safety Audits in North Wales: The Data
Fire safety enforcement varies more between areas than most responsible persons realise, so we analysed the official data to see how North Wales compares. Fire and rescue statistics for Wales are published separately from those for England, so we worked from the Welsh Government dataset on StatsWales, Fire and Rescue Service audit activity, which records for each of the three Welsh services the audits carried out, their outcomes, the premises inspected and the enforcement action taken, going back to 2006. Wales records an audit outcome as either no further action, meaning the premises broadly met its obligations, or as requiring further action, so throughout this article we describe the share of audits that required further action, which is the closest equivalent to the unsatisfactory measure used in England. We isolated North Wales, compared it with the other Welsh services, broke the results down by type of premises while pooling three years so the figures are stable, and measured how much of the building stock is actually inspected. What follows is what that analysis shows for North Wales.
Where North Wales stands
In the year ending March 2025, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service carried out 320 fire safety audits, of which 24.1 per cent required further action, while the remaining three-quarters were closed with no further action needed. That was the lowest rate of the three Welsh fire and rescue services, and well below the Wales average of 76.9 per cent, so a premises audited in North Wales was more likely to be found in good order than one audited elsewhere in Wales.
The contrast between the three Welsh services is stark, and North Wales sits far below the other two.
These figures show how many audited premises were closed with no further action. Services choose which premises to audit and record their outcomes in their own way, and the very wide gap between the three Welsh services owes a good deal to those differences in recording, so the numbers are best read as a picture of local inspection activity, and not a league table of how safe each area is.
The trend over time
North Wales has reduced its share of audits requiring further action over the period, from 44.6 per cent in 2016/17 to 24.1 per cent in the latest year, with a sharp dip in 2020/21 when the pandemic cut audit numbers.
Audit volumes have fallen over the same period, from close to a thousand a year in the late 2010s to 320 in the latest year, so the service is carrying out fewer audits, and a higher share of them are now closed without further action.
Which premises fail most often
The overall figure 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 figures are stable, the likelihood of an audit requiring further action varied considerably.
The premises most likely to require further action in North Wales were other sleeping accommodation, licensed premises and houses in multiple occupation, with around half of audits in each needing something put right, while hotels, schools and factories sat at the lower end. If you run one of these higher-risk premises, or any building 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. North Wales audited around 1.4 per cent of its known premises during the year, and that limited resource is directed firmly at the higher-risk end of the building stock.
Care homes were by far the most likely to be audited, at 26 per cent of those known, while hotels, hostels and hospitals saw a few per cent each and most other premises types well under two per cent.
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 North Wales
We also looked at what premises fail on. Wales does not publish a breakdown of the specific duties cited when an audit requires further action, so we draw here on the equivalent England-wide data, which is a fair guide because the same law, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, applies across both England and Wales. These are the duties fire and rescue services record most often.
The single most common failure, 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 in North Wales, as across England and Wales, it is one of the most common duties 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 North Wales
An active enforcerNorth Wales Fire and Rescue Service enforces the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 through a risk-based inspection programme, directing its audits towards the premises it judges most hazardous. It makes firm use of its enforcement powers, serving 12 prohibition notices in the latest year, up from 5 the year before, which is a reminder that a finding of serious risk leads to firm action.
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 North Wales, we recommend you note the following. The service concentrates its limited audit resource on the highest-risk premises, with more than a quarter of care homes inspected in the year, so the chance of a visit is real if your building is higher-risk. Failing an audit carries real consequences, with 8 enforcement notices and 12 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 North Wales, 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 that covers North Wales. 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 Welsh Government fire and rescue service audit activity dataset published on StatsWales, for the year ending March 2025, with sector figures pooled over three years and very small samples excluded, alongside the equivalent England-wide data on the reasons premises fail. 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 North Wales 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 the Welsh Government fire and rescue service audit activity dataset (StatsWales, year ending March 2025) and, for the reasons premises fail, the equivalent MHCLG fire statistics for England. Cross-service comparisons should be interpreted with care. 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.