Greater Manchester Fire Safety Audits: 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 Greater Manchester 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 Greater Manchester 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 Greater Manchester.
Where Greater Manchester stands
In the year ending March 2025, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service carried out 1,781 fire safety audits, of which 41.2 per cent were unsatisfactory. That placed Greater Manchester 22nd of the 44 fire and rescue authorities in England, almost exactly in line with the England average of 41.8 per cent.
Within the North West, Greater Manchester sits in the middle of a wide spread, close to the national average.
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
Greater Manchester’s rate has fluctuated within a fairly narrow band over the period, starting at 40.4 per cent in 2016/17 and ending at 41.2 per cent.
That has kept it close to the England average throughout, and close to it still as the national figure settled at 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 Greater Manchester were hmos, hotels and care homes, with schools close behind, while shops and offices sat at the lower end. If you run an HMO, a hotel or a care home, 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. Greater Manchester audited around 1.2 per cent of its known premises during the year, and that limited resource is directed at the higher-risk end of the building stock.
Care homes and hotels were the most likely to be visited, at around 15 per cent of those known, followed by hospitals.
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 Greater Manchester
We also examined what premises in Greater Manchester actually fail on. The official data records the duties most often cited where premises in the county fell short, and the failures are spread fairly evenly across the fundamentals.
The most common failures in Greater Manchester are closely bunched, led by the general duty to take fire precautions and the maintenance of fire safety equipment and fire doors, each accounting for around one in seven recorded shortcomings. 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. The fire risk assessment itself and the protection of emergency routes and exits follow close behind.
Fire safety arrangements, the planning and management of fire safety, are the fifth most common failure in Greater Manchester, and these are addressed with a clear fire safety policy. Staff fire safety training features too, alongside failures of emergency procedures and of informing employees about the risks. 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 Greater Manchester it sits among the failures inspectors record, in a service that issues more enforcement notices than almost any other. 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 Greater Manchester
An independently well-rated serviceHMICFRS, the independent inspectorate, has described Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service as one of the most improved and best performing services in the country, awarding it outstanding grades for its prevention work and for its values and culture. Audits in Greater Manchester are carried out by a service the inspectorate holds in high regard.
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 Greater Manchester, we recommend you note the following. HMOs, hotels and care homes are the most likely premises to be found wanting, so if you run one the chance of a visit is real. The service issues more enforcement notices than almost any other in England, with 214 enforcement notices and 91 prohibition notices recorded in the latest year, so failing an audit carries real consequences. 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 Greater Manchester, 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 Greater Manchester 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.