Fire Risk Assessment error blamed on bungling safety expert

Hackney Council is making its most recent FRAs public in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. Photograph: Natalie Oxford via Twitter

The puzzle as to why two Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) were carried out at a council block within the space of just four days has been explained away by the Town Hall as another recording error.

FRAs are usually reviewed annually or every two years, but documents for 1-80 Wayman Court showed two checks were undertaken within a few days of each other earlier this year – one on 24 June and another on 28 June.

When asked why, a spokesperson for Hackney Council said: “The previous FRA [24 June 2017] should have read 4 October 2016 – the assessor noted the wrong date in error.

“The council has carried out this FRA [28 June 2017] as part of the work to revisit all FRAs that were done prior to April 2017 by the end of the year.”

The Town Hall blamed an assessor for another recording error after the Citizen revealed one of its properties had not had a fire safety check for over five years.

On that occasion, the council claims a surveyor mistakenly recorded an FRA as having been completed, when actually numerous failed attempts had been made to get in to the building.

In the wake of June’s Grenfell Tower tragedy, the council is publishing the most recent 1,800 FRAs for its properties on its website.

The surveys are carried out by independent experts and highlight any safety risks at a building.

After Grenfell, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton described FRAs as the “single most important action” housing providers can take to improve the safety of residents.