Fire Safety Audits in Shropshire: 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 Shropshire 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 Shropshire and its West Midlands 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 published HMICFRS inspection findings for the service. What follows is what that analysis shows for Shropshire.
Where Shropshire stands
In the year ending March 2025, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service carried out 482 fire safety audits, of which 27.2 per cent were unsatisfactory. That placed Shropshire 14th of the 44 fire and rescue authorities in England, below the England average of 41.8 per cent, so a premises audited in Shropshire was more likely to be found compliant than one audited nationally.
Within the West Midlands, Shropshire sits in the upper half, below the regional and national average for unsatisfactory results.
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
Shropshire’s rate has moved up and down over the period, starting at 21.8 per cent in 2016/17 and reaching 27.2 per cent in the latest year, with several swings in between.
Across the same period the England average rose to 41.8 per cent, and Shropshire has stayed below that national figure throughout.
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 Shropshire were hotels, where half of audits were unsatisfactory, followed by licensed premises, hmos and care homes, while offices and schools sat at the lower end. If you run a hotels, a licensed venue or an hmos, 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. Shropshire audited around 2.9 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 were the most likely to be audited, at 14.5 per cent of those known, followed by schools and other sleeping accommodation.
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 Shropshire
We also examined what premises in Shropshire actually fail on. The official data records the duties most often cited where Shropshire premises fell short, and one failure stands out above the rest.
The single most common failure in Shropshire, accounting for almost a quarter of all recorded shortcomings, concerns emergency plans and procedures, the documented arrangements for what people should do when a fire breaks out, which a clear fire safety policy sets out. The fire risk assessment itself comes next, followed by firefighting equipment and detection, the general duty to take fire precautions, and the protection of emergency routes and exits. The maintenance of fire safety equipment and fire doors appears too, and a fire door inspection is the way to confirm fire doors will hold back fire and smoke as they are meant to.
Much of this concerns people and planning instead of hardware. Appointing competent safety assistance, staff fire safety training, and informing employees about the risks all feature among the recorded failures. 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 Shropshire, where inadequate procedures are the most common failure of all, it goes hand in hand with making sure people know what to do. 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 Shropshire
A small service that enforces activelyShropshire Fire and Rescue Service operates a risk-based inspection programme, directing its audits towards the premises it judges most hazardous. Despite being one of the smaller services in the country, it makes firm use of its enforcement powers, serving 16 prohibition notices in the latest year, more than some far larger services, 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 Shropshire, we recommend you note the following. Hotels, licensed premises and HMOs are the most likely premises to be found wanting, so if you run one the chance of a visit is real. Failing an audit carries real consequences, with 9 enforcement notices and 16 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 Shropshire, 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 Shropshire 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.