Fire Safety Audits in Staffordshire: 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 Staffordshire 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 Staffordshire 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 Staffordshire.
Where Staffordshire stands
In the year ending March 2025, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service carried out 511 fire safety audits, of which just 10.2 per cent were unsatisfactory. That was the second lowest unsatisfactory rate of all 44 fire and rescue authorities in England, far below the England average of 41.8 per cent, so a premises audited in Staffordshire was much more likely to be found in good order than one audited nationally.
Within the West Midlands the spread is wide, and Staffordshire sits at the very top of it.
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
Staffordshire’s improvement runs across the whole period for which comparable figures exist, falling from 42.3 per cent unsatisfactory in 2016/17 to 10.2 per cent in the latest year.
Across the same period the England average moved in the opposite direction, climbing to 41.8 per cent, so the gap between Staffordshire and the national picture has widened.
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 Staffordshire were hotels and licensed premises, with high-rise flats and shops close behind, while factories & warehouses and hospitals sat at the lower end. If you run a hotels or a licensed venue, 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. Staffordshire audited around 1.7 per cent of its known premises during the year, and that limited resource is directed at the higher-risk end of the building stock.
High-rise flats (4+ storeys) were the most likely to be audited, at 38 per cent of those known, followed by care homes and 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 Staffordshire
We also examined what premises in Staffordshire actually fail on. The official data records the duties most often cited where Staffordshire premises fell short, and a clear pattern emerges.
The single most common failure in Staffordshire, accounting for around a fifth of all recorded shortcomings, concerns the protection of emergency routes and exits, the blocked corridor, the locked final exit, the missing or unlit sign. The general duty to take fire precautions comes next, followed by the maintenance of fire safety equipment and fire doors, and the fire risk assessment itself. 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.
People and planning feature too. Staff fire safety training sits among the recorded failures, alongside the emergency procedures and fire safety arrangements that a clear fire safety policy sets out. 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 Staffordshire it sits among the failures inspectors record. 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 Staffordshire
An independently rated serviceHMICFRS, the independent inspectorate, graded Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service good across six of its eleven inspection areas and outstanding in one, and congratulated the service on its performance in keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks. Audits in Staffordshire are carried out by a service the inspectorate assessed positively across most of its work.
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 Staffordshire, we recommend you note the following. The service concentrates its audits on higher-risk premises such as high-rise flats, care homes and hospitals, so the chance of a visit is real if your building is among them. Failing an audit carries real consequences, with 10 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 Staffordshire, 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 Staffordshire 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.