London Fire Brigade have online advice about this very subject and toward the bottom of the list they say this:

Don’t forget you can talk to us if you’re struggling to resolve the problem and need guidance.

I agree that a generic procedure needs to be put in place so everyone knows what they are doing, but it really isn't rocket science.

Let's start at the beginning. The vast majority of fire alarm systems are to raise the alarm and let others know there is a fire so they can act accordingly. For years the fire service (IMHO) wasted £millions dashing about searching and resetting alarms - some of which followed 999 calls even though the occupier knew it was an unwanted alarm signal before making the call. That is obscene! A friend of mine when I was in the fire service died en route to a fire alarm call in a hospital when the appliance was involved in a RTC. There were scores of security and facility staff -plus NHS managers who could have done the search quicker than us, but we went there several times a week

So its is right that the cash strapped fire service target their money efficiently and let the Responsible person - well, act responsibly 

At my last job we had a range of premises. Some very large (3000 detector heads) and some small. We investigated all of our actuations and in 14 years we only called the fire service once when we has the smell of hot works near a detector that had operated and there was some doubt why it had activated 

Training can be as simple as identifying staff to do the search and setting a set of rules to be followed

Our main rules were:

Work in pairs (radio contact with another person is acceptable in low risk premises as long as there’s a process to follow if contact is lost)

Safety is paramount - any doubts, get the fire brigade out (smell of burning , hotter than usual rooms or walls, odd noises, in fact anything out of the ordinary or unexpected - 999)

There will be no ramifications on staff who call 999 when there was no fire, but merely a suspicion of fire 

Notts fire and rescue have good advice here

https://www.notts-fire.gov.uk/business-safety/supporting-business/unwanted-fire-signals/how-to-investigate-and-reset-your-fire-alarm/#:~:text=When investigating look, listen and,do not open the door.

Good luck

Originally Posted by: O'Donnell54548

Search the building? surely if it is triggered by an detector this will show the location on your control panel, and if by manual call point the person who raised the alarm can tell you where it is.  

Although this is true if you have a fully addressable fire alarm system, or your Zones are small and localised in nature. However, a lot of fire alarms are installed/set up to have either a single Zone covering the whole demise or a very large Zone, i.e. each Zone is a whole floor of the building. 

Perhaps this requirement might 'encourage' the Responsible Person and Fire Alarm companies to think a bit harder about the design of the installation going forward. 

Edited by user 01 August 2023 06:38:02(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified