Duty holders now have nowhere to hide on public safety – Fire Aware
Posted by: electime 13th October 2026
Growing fire safety leader Fire Aware says there is now nowhere to hide for the duty holders responsible for providing services and products to the built environment.
Fire Aware CEO Gavin Skelly declared: “We need to act quickly. Cultural change is starting to happen but not nearly fast enough, and as we approach the tenth anniversary of Grenfell, we need to know we are all subscribing to the same principles of best practice.”
In a statement to the fire safety and related sectors, he said: “The consumer should ultimately be able to choose companies who are brave enough to corporately commit to responsible behaviors.
“As an industry, we need to signal to the market that we are adopting all best practices to ensure safety for the public without them having to challenge companies on issues of competence. If the behaviors are correct within a given business, the competence will naturally follow.
“After all that has happened, and the change that has been introduced, it is difficult to comprehend that we are still seeing examples of companies cutting corners in the name of commercial gain.
“Providing the consumer with a choice to make about their service provider’s cultural and moral behaviors is surely as important as identifying their technical ability when people’s lives are at stake. And this choice cannot be confined to just those who construct. It must encompass the entire supply chain with a simple unifying message that means the same wherever the consumer sees it.
“Technically, the public doesn’t know what competence looks like but they know how safe they feel and when things go wrong they will be the judge to help change happen.
“At Fire Aware, we continue to demand the highest standards technically and morally to ensure that people and the buildings they inhabit are safe. Lest we ever forget, this industry is a vocation and should be treated as such.”
The recent introduction of the Building Safety Act and the creation of the new Building Safety Regulator – along with other legislation – has added additional regulatory reform to the building safety industry.
Fire Aware members commit to a Code of Conduct with specific charters which take the safety process beyond legislation. Skelly emphasised that the fire safety principles of the organisation are relevant to any sector which relies on best practice including the retail industry, hospitality, stadia, healthcare and the public infrastructure.
Dame Judith Hackitt – who led the Grenfell Inquiry – has called for cultural change through moral and ethical behaviours, recently supported by the new independent Building Safety Regulator (BSR) that was created to ‘promote competence and higher standards.’
Fire Aware is a recognised membership body serving the built environment and related sectors with a common aim to work and trade responsibly to all best practice standards in the interests of the safety of the general public. See www.fireaware.org.
