How often should fire drills be carried out?

The legal answer is refreshingly simple and slightly annoying: as often as is appropriate to the risk. Here's what that actually means for your building.

The baseline: at least once a year

UK Government guidance is clear on the floor: you should carry out at least one fire drill per year and record the results, kept as part of your fire safety and evacuation plan. For a small, low-risk office or shop, that annual drill is the minimum that keeps you on the right side of the law.

Why the law won't give you a number

Article 15 of the Fire Safety Order requires you to establish evacuation procedures and practise them — but deliberately doesn't fix a frequency. Instead it's risk-based: the drill schedule has to reflect your premises, your people and your fire risk assessment. That's why "once a year" is a floor, not a target.

How often, by premises type

• Low-risk offices & shops — at least annually; every six months is common good practice so new starters and shift workers get a turn.
• Schools & colleges — typically once a term (with the constant turnover of new pupils and staff).
• Care homes & hospitals — more often, often quarterly, with extra rehearsal of assisted evacuation and night-time scenarios where staffing is lower.
• Manufacturing, warehousing & flammable-store risks — frequently monthly, driven by the risk assessment.

Make the drill actually test something

A drill everyone expects, at the same time every year, teaches people to expect it — which tests nothing. Vary the day and time, keep the wider team in the dark, and change the scenario: block a main staircase to force the secondary route, and watch whether your wardens know their sweep zones. Test any PEEPs and the staff trained to support them.

Record it — or it didn't happen

An inspector will ask for your logbook. For each drill, record the date and time, how long the full evacuation took, any problems (a stiff fire door, an alarm someone couldn't hear), and the actions you took to fix them. Keep the records on file.

Why it's worth the hassle

In a real fire people don't rise to the occasion — they fall back on what they've practised. The single biggest factor in surviving a fire is how quickly everyone leaves, and a rehearsed evacuation is dramatically faster than an improvised one. The drill is where that speed is built.

This guide is for learning and applies to England & Wales. Always work from the current regulations and your own fire risk assessment; Scotland and Northern Ireland have equivalent regimes.