Posted By Richard B Hi Martin The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) only requires that they are serviced by a competent person. It recommends that a third party accreditation be used to identify competence (however this is not a requirement). The most common accreditation is BAFE which requires all their engineers to attend a fire extinguisher engineers course (usually course accredited by FETA). Following this qualification BAFE then require the individual to carry out an NVQ style portfolio and be assessed by the BAFE assessors. This also requires the company to hold a quality assurance status such as ISO9001. The following links provide more info on servicing and the RRO http://www.fireextinguisher.org.uk/ http://www.fireriskassessment.mobi/index.htm If you need any further advise please feel free to contact me via P message.

Posted By Safety Lemon Martin When I had to do this as part of a previous role I went on a 5-day course (I cannot recall the provider but was one of the big fire extinguisher manufacturers) and we had to sit an exam approved by the British Standards Institution against the requirements of QAS 3169.4/9. I do not know whether that is still a current standard, but I'm sure if you contacted any of the above organisations they might be able to advise you. SL

Posted By ianmilne69 Hi. I previously worked in that environment (yes, many many years ago). If your only needing to know that the contractors are competent, then you dont need to attend the training courses (unless you want that qualification). The recognised qualification is usually a FETA certified engineer (I remember that they only needed to be certified once though so thats a bit of a concern...anyone wish to re-enlighten me if no longer the case). The standard for extinguishers is BS 5306. What you could do, is go out to tender and ask for the qualifications of the companies you are tendering and include that as part of the qualifying requirements. Then you can ensure you have the right competence and ensuring your paying a fair price (the service charges are small, they make the profit in the spares).