Fire Strategy Engineers London | Fire Safety ServicesWhat a fire strategy engineer does — and why chartered status matters
A fire strategy engineer is a specialist fire safety professional who produces the technical fire strategy document required at key stages of a building project. The fire strategy sets out how a building is designed to detect, contain, and allow escape from a fire — and how that design complies with Approved Document B, BS 9999, BS 9991, and where applicable the Building Safety Act 2022. It is not the same as a fire risk assessment, which looks at an existing building in use. A fire strategy is a design document produced during the planning, building control, or refurbishment stage of a project.
In London, the demand for fire strategy engineers is driven by several overlapping regulatory requirements. London Plan Policy D12a requires a fire safety statement — incorporating the fire strategy — for all relevant major planning applications in Greater London. The Building Safety Act 2022 requires Gateway 1, Gateway 2, and Gateway 3 submissions for higher-risk buildings, each of which requires fire engineering input. Building control bodies require a fire strategy as part of the building regulations submission for new-build and conversion projects. These requirements mean that architects, developers, and contractors working on London projects regularly need a fire strategy engineer at multiple points in the project lifecycle.
Not all fire strategy engineers are chartered. The title is not legally protected, which means anyone can describe themselves as a fire strategy engineer regardless of their qualifications or experience. At Fire Safety Services, all fire strategy reports are produced by chartered engineers holding IFE membership, with the practice carrying up to £5M professional indemnity insurance. This matters because building control bodies, the Building Safety Regulator, and planning authorities increasingly scrutinise the qualifications of the engineer who produced the fire strategy — particularly for higher-risk buildings where the stakes of an inadequate strategy are significant.
