Fire Risk Assessments for Pubs, Bars and Restaurants
Updated October 2026 · England and Wales, with notes for Scotland and Northern Ireland · Uses Home Office audit data for April 2025 to March 2026
Short answer: every pub, bar, restaurant, café and takeaway needs a written fire risk assessment, recorded in full, whatever its size. The two things that turn a routine assessment into a serious one are people sleeping on the premises, in a flat, staff rooms or letting rooms upstairs, and a commercial kitchen with a grease-lined extract. Most pubs and restaurants pay £250 to £450. Takeaways and small cafés can be less, and pubs with rooms or a flat above usually cost more.
Of the three types of premises fire services audit most, licensed premises get the worst results. In the year to March 2026, only about half of the licensed premises audited in England were found satisfactory. And when we looked at ten recent prosecutions of pubs, restaurants and takeaways, the same story came up nine times out of ten: somebody was asleep upstairs.
This guide covers what the law expects, what fire services keep finding, the flat-above problem, kitchen extract cleaning, and what to expect from an assessment. Sources are linked throughout.
Licensed premises fail fire audits more than most
Audit figures: Home Office, Fire prevention and protection statistics, England, April 2025 to March 2026 (table FIRE1202, category “licensed premises”). Prosecution pattern: our review of the ten cases listed below.
Pub, restaurant and takeaway prosecutions, 2019 to 2026
We checked each of these against the fire service, council or trade press report. The pattern is hard to miss. In nine of the ten, people were living or sleeping above or behind the business: a landlord’s family, staff in the loft, letting rooms or tenants. In nine, the fire detection was missing, domestic or not working. Five owners received suspended prison sentences.
Two lessons stand out. First, a pub or restaurant with nobody upstairs is rarely prosecuted. Fire services act hardest where a fire downstairs could trap someone asleep. Second, having an assessment isn’t enough. The Poachers Inn had one. Its actions just never got done.
What the assessment has to cover, by type of venue
The legal duty is the same for all of them: the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, with the whole assessment written down since October 2023. What changes is the detail the assessor has to get right.
| Venue | Official guide used | What raises the risk | What the assessment must settle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Takeaway or café | Small and medium places of assembly (up to 300 people) | Fryers, extract ductwork, flat or staff rooms above | Kitchen controls, extract cleaning, separation from any accommodation |
| Restaurant | Small and medium places of assembly | Commercial kitchen, busy evenings, basement stores | Escape for diners, staff training, kitchen and extract |
| Pub or bar | Small and medium places of assembly | Cellar, late-night crowds, function room upstairs, landlord’s flat | Capacity, exits that open without a key, the stair to the flat |
| Pub with letting rooms | Sleeping accommodation guide for the rooms | Guests asleep above a bar and kitchen | Commercial-grade detection, fire doors to bedrooms, a protected route out |
| Late-night bar or club, over 300 people | Large places of assembly | Crowd density, loud music masking the alarm, door staff | Occupancy limit, alarm audibility, how the music is cut |
Guides: Fire safety risk assessment: small and medium places of assembly (names public houses and clubs, up to 300 people), large places of assembly (over 300) and sleeping accommodation. Table compiled by us, October 2026.
If you let rooms, our hotels, guest houses and B&Bs guide covers the 2025 alarm standard change that affects bedrooms.
Living above the business: the issue behind most prosecutions
A flat above a pub or takeaway is the classic high-risk layout. A fire in a kitchen or bar at 2am can fill the only staircase before anyone upstairs wakes up. Fire services are blunt about it. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service says a single, unprotected staircase through the public area or kitchen “is not acceptable and is a risk to life” (Living above a business).
What they usually expect:
- Separation. Walls, floors and doors between the business and the home should give 60 minutes of fire resistance. That can come down to 30 minutes where there is an interlinked alarm and the assessment supports it.
- A protected way out. A route from the flat to the street that doesn’t depend on getting through the bar or kitchen.
- Detection that wakes people up. A fire starting in the business must raise the alarm in the flat, not just downstairs.
- Nobody sleeping where they shouldn’t. Staff sleeping in a loft, cellar or store room is behind several of the prohibition notices in the cases above.
In older pubs, full separation is sometimes not possible. Councils accept that, but only with compensating measures, such as better detection or a second escape route (Great Yarmouth Borough Council, mixed use). That is a judgement call the assessor has to make and justify in writing.
Where there are two or more flats above, the Fire Safety Act 2021 brings the building’s structure, external walls and flat entrance doors into the Fire Safety Order. That often means two responsible persons, the business tenant and the freeholder, who must share their findings and cooperate. Our blocks of flats guide explains how that works.
Extract ductwork, fryers and what your insurer will ask
Grease builds up inside kitchen extract ducts where nobody can see it, and a flare-up on the range can travel straight up the duct. London Fire Brigade publishes reports on these fires every year. After a restaurant fire in Walthamstow in April 2025, caused by an ember igniting grease in the ducting, it reminded owners not to let ducting get dirty (LFB incident report).
The industry standard for cleaning is TR19 Grease, from the Building Engineering Services Association. Many insurance policies now require it. The frequency depends on how hard the kitchen works:
| Kitchen use | Typical hours a day | Clean the extract system |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy | 12–16 | Every 3 months |
| Moderate | 6–12 | Every 6 months |
| Light | 2–6 | Every 12 months |
Source: BESA, kitchen extract system cleaning (January 2026), matching the frequencies in Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service guidance. Under TR19, grease deposits should average no more than 200 microns, and 500 microns anywhere needs cleaning straight away.
A good assessor will ask for your last extract cleaning certificate, check that the ducting has access panels so it can be cleaned along its length, and look at the fryers. Insurer guidance expects fryers to have a separate high-limit thermostat that cuts the heat if oil overheats, and a wet chemical (Class F) extinguisher close by, because water on burning oil makes it far worse. If you have a fixed suppression system over the range, it needs servicing at least every six months.
No prosecution in our ten cases came from an extract fire, but that isn’t reassuring. Extract fires usually show up as insurance claims and closed kitchens rather than court cases.
How the fire risk assessment ties into your premises licence
- The fire service is a responsible authority under the Licensing Act 2003 (section 13). It is consulted on new licences and variations, and can ask for a review.
- Capacity. Where a licence sets a maximum number of people, it is normally based on the fire service’s view under the Fire Safety Order. Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service explains that capacity is the lower of two figures, one based on floor space and one on exit widths, and that premises below standard can see occupancy cut (occupancy guidance).
- The licence is not a fire certificate. Holding a premises licence doesn’t mean your fire safety is in order. The assessment is a separate legal duty.
- Change of licensee or operator. Since October 2023, an outgoing responsible person must pass the fire safety information to whoever takes over. If you’re taking on a pub, ask for the assessment and the alarm, emergency lighting and extract records on day one.
What assessors keep finding in pubs and restaurants
Sources: Northumberland FRS, late-night venues, Avon FRS, pubs, bars and clubs, LFB, takeaways, cafés and restaurants, and the small and medium places of assembly guide.
Real questions about fire risk and the flat upstairs
“we’re mainly worried about it being shared and the fire issue”
Buyer looking at a flat above a pizza and kebab takeaway, Mumsnet Property, March 2024
It’s a fair worry, and it’s exactly why the takeaway’s fire risk assessment matters to the people upstairs. The business must separate itself from the flat, normally with 60 minutes of fire resistance, keep its extract ducting clean, and make sure a fire downstairs raises the alarm upstairs. A buyer can reasonably ask to see that assessment, the extract cleaning certificate and confirmation of how the flat’s alarm links to the shop. One reply in the same thread also pointed out that the extractor fans themselves were a potential fire hazard. They are, if they’re not cleaned.
A fire safety adviser described a shop with two flats above. The shop and the shared stairwell had a linked alarm, but each flat had its own separate alarm. Would the people in the flats even hear a fire in the shop?
Paraphrased from Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, November 2022
Probably not, and that’s the point the assessment has to settle. If a fire in the business can’t wake the people above it, the alarm doesn’t do its main job. The usual answer is to extend the system so the flats get a warning, or to link them, with the details justified in the assessment. The same thread raised a second problem: the new owner didn’t think weekly alarm tests were necessary. They are expected, and a missing test log is one of the first things a fire officer asks for.
“I have just become the landlord of a pub which has no fire extinguiher installed at all.”
New pub landlord, Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, June 2011
A reply from an extinguisher installer pointed to wet chemical and CO2 extinguishers and a fire blanket for the kitchen, and said a written fire risk assessment should decide what is actually needed. That order still matters: the assessment comes first and decides the equipment, not the other way round. Taking over a pub is also the moment to ask the outgoing operator for the existing assessment and the alarm, emergency lighting and extract cleaning records.
What a pub or restaurant fire risk assessment costs
| Premises | Typical time on site | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Takeaway or small café, no accommodation | 1–2 hours | £185–£300 |
| Pub, bar or restaurant, no rooms let | 2–3 hours | £250–£450 |
| Pub with rooms or a flat above, large or late-night venue | 3–5 hours | £350–£700+ |
Our bands, drawn from published prices by M6 Fire Risk Assessments, Supernova, Fire Response UK, Fire Risk Assessment Network, NW Fire Solutions, Staines Safety Services, Clear Fire Compliance and UK Fire Risk Assessments, checked October 2026. Only two of them priced pubs or restaurants separately. Most didn’t say whether VAT was included, so ask. The full survey is in our fire risk assessment cost guide.
Extract cleaning, alarm upgrades and fire doors are separate costs. If an assessor also sells them, that’s worth knowing before you book.
If your venue isn’t in England or Wales
Scotland: the duties come from the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, with practical guidance for existing non-residential premises covering entertainment venues. A pub with letting rooms falls under the separate guidance for premises with sleeping accommodation.
Northern Ireland: the Fire and Rescue Services (NI) Order 2006 and the Fire Safety Regulations (NI) 2010 apply. NIFRS guidance for entertainment licensing, published in August 2026, is clear that a licence doesn’t confirm fire safety compliance and that capacity must never be higher than the figure in your fire risk assessment (NIFRS guide).
What happens during the assessment
Book it for a quiet time, usually a weekday morning before opening, but tell the assessor how the place runs at its busiest. They’ll walk the bar, kitchen, cellar, stores, any function room and the accommodation, check that exits open without a key, look at the alarm panel and emergency lighting, and trace the route out from the flat or rooms upstairs.
Have ready: your previous assessment, the fire alarm and emergency lighting servicing certificates, your test log, the extract cleaning certificate, any suppression system service record, staff training records and your premises licence. Our booking page has the full list. Already had a fire officer’s visit with a deadline attached? Our urgent assessments page explains how to get one booked quickly.
What a typical pub assessment looks like
Example
The property: a two-bar village pub with a 40-cover restaurant, a cellar, and the licensee’s two-bedroom flat upstairs, reached by a stair behind the bar.
The visit: two to three hours on a weekday morning before opening.
What usually comes up: the flat’s stair is open to the bar with no fire door at the bottom, the flat’s smoke alarms aren’t linked to the pub’s alarm, the extract on a busy kitchen was last cleaned 14 months ago, and the beer garden gate is padlocked.
Cost: in the £350 to £700 band, because of the flat above.
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
Pub and restaurant fire safety questions
Does a small takeaway need a fire risk assessment?
Yes. Every business premises in England and Wales needs one, and since October 2023 it must be recorded in full whatever the number of staff. Older advice saying only businesses with five or more employees need a written record is out of date.
Can I live above my pub or restaurant?
Yes, but the flat must be properly separated from the business, have a protected way out that doesn’t run through the bar or kitchen, and get a warning if a fire starts downstairs. Your fire risk assessment has to cover it.
How often should kitchen extract ducts be cleaned?
Under the TR19 Grease standard, every 3 months for heavy use (12 to 16 hours a day), every 6 months for moderate use and every 12 months for light use. Check your insurance policy, as many now require TR19.
What fire extinguisher does a commercial kitchen need?
A wet chemical (Class F) extinguisher for cooking oil and fat fires, plus whatever else your assessment identifies, such as CO2 for electrical equipment. Never use water on a fat fire.
Does my premises licence cover fire safety?
No. The licence and the fire risk assessment are separate. The fire service is consulted on your licence and can influence capacity, but holding a licence doesn’t mean you comply with fire safety law.
How much does a pub fire risk assessment cost?
Typically £250 to £450 for a pub, bar or restaurant without letting rooms, £185 to £300 for a small takeaway or café, and £350 to £700 or more for a pub with rooms or a flat above.
Who is the responsible person in a tenanted or leased pub?
Usually the operator who controls the business day to day. Where there is a flat or rooms above, the owner or freeholder may also have duties for the structure and shared parts, and the two must cooperate and share their findings.
Get a Price for Your Pub or Restaurant
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