BS 9792:2025 — Fire risk assessment in housing

What it is for

BS 9792 is the current code of practice for carrying out fire risk assessments in housing. It gives the assessment of residential premises the same kind of structured, repeatable methodology that PAS 79-1 provides for non-domestic buildings, and it replaces the withdrawn PAS 79-2 as the reference point the sector works to.

Its arrival matters for a reason beyond the content. A British Standard carries more weight as an industry benchmark than a Publicly Available Specification, which is a faster, lighter-touch route to publication. The conversion signals that the methodology has been through fuller consensus and is expected to be the settled position rather than an interim one.

Scope and typical application

The document addresses housing: purpose-built blocks of flats, converted residential buildings, and the residential elements of mixed-use developments. It deals with the questions specific to residential assessment — the relationship between individual dwellings and common parts, the building's evacuation strategy and whether it remains appropriate, the condition of the compartmentation the strategy depends on, and the arrangements for residents who could not evacuate unaided.

That last area is the one to pay attention to. It is the ground on which its predecessor was withdrawn, and expectations around the evacuation of disabled and vulnerable residents have moved substantially since 2020.

Where a building has both residential and non-domestic parts, the boundary between this document and PAS 79-1 needs deciding at the outset. This standard's scope reaches into mixed-use buildings with a residential component, which narrows the territory PAS 79-1 covers in practice without displacing it.

How it relates to legal duty

A British Standard is not law. The duty to carry out and maintain a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment comes from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales, and it falls on the Responsible Person. Separate duties in England, including those introduced by the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, bear directly on residential buildings and are not displaced by anything in this standard.

Following BS 9792 does not discharge the statutory duty on its own. It provides a defensible methodology; whether an assessment is suitable and sufficient still turns on the competence of the person carrying it out and the judgement they exercised.

What this means in practice

For anyone responsible for housing stock, the practical question is not whether existing assessments must be redone immediately — they need not be — but whether their conclusions still hold against a standard written after the expectations changed. Assessments citing PAS 79-2, particularly on evacuation of disabled and vulnerable residents, are the ones worth looking at first.

Status and currency

BS 9792:2025 was published on 1 August 2025 and is current. No amendments or corrigenda have been identified. It supersedes PAS 79-2:2020.