Fire safety statements

A fire safety statement is a document issued by or on behalf of the owner(s) of an existing building.

The statement confirms that an accredited practitioner (fire safety) has assessed, inspected and verified the performance of each fire safety measure that applies to the building.

Accredited practitioners (fire safety)

An accredited practitioner (fire safety) is a person that undertakes certain specialist fire safety assessment functions required by the Regulation.

Accredited practitioners (fire safety) were previously known as (and do the same work as) competent fire safety practitioners.

The Department of Customer Service has a co-regulatory framework to recognize industry accreditation schemes for accredited practitioners (fire safety). The Fire Protection Association Australia (FPAA) accreditation scheme was approved by the Government in July 2020 and is the first industry accreditation scheme to receive approval.

Only practitioners accredited by the FPAA can perform the functions of an accredited practitioner (fire safety) where that function is covered by the FPAA scheme. The plans and specifications for specific fire safety systems can also be endorsed by certain registered certifiers.

For some fire safety functions, there are currently no practitioners accredited by the FPAA. For these functions a building owner or building certifier will be required to determine that a person is an accredited practitioner (fire safety). This is much like the role undertaken by building owners and building certifiers previously.