Fire Protection Association

Last updated

Fire Protection Association
AbbreviationFPA
Formation1946
Legal statusAssociation
PurposeProvider of independent advice and guidance on all aspects of fire safety
Location
Region served
UK and Overseas
Membership
Approx 5,000 fire protection companies, organisations and individuals from the UK and overseas
Managing Director
Jonathan O’Neill
Website The FPA

The Fire Protection Association is the UK's National Fire Safety Organisation. Established in 1946, it specializes on spreading awareness about wildfire. It offers education and training, a fire risk assessment service, a nationwide risk management survey service for insurers, and a membership journal (Fire Risk Management).

Contents

History

In 1880 the UK insurance industry, represented by the British Insurance Association (now the Association of British Insurers), formed the Fire Offices Committee (FOC) for the purposes of insurance tariff setting and technical support, and the Fire Protection Association (FPA) for information dissemination.

In 1935 the FOC set up a test laboratory on the outskirts of London at Borehamwood, [1] which at the start of World War II was taken over by the government as the Fire Research Station (FRS), with the FOC’s technical department being represented by a combined group called the Joint Fire Research Organisation (JFRO).

In the early 1980s, aided by the ABI, there was a parting of the ways to address the often incompatible issues of ‘life safety’ versus ‘business and property protection’, and the technical arm of FOC formed the Fire Insurer’s Research and Testing Organisation (FIRTO). FRS remained a government organisation until it was absorbed into the Building Research Establishment (BRE).

In 1984 FIRTO combined with the FOC technical department, FPA, and the Insurers Technical Bureau (ITB) to form the Loss Prevention Council (LPC) which later went on to develop a certification body called the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB). In 1999 UK insurers sold LPC Laboratories and LPCB to BRE, retaining the Fire Protection Association which relocated to offices at Blackfriars in London. Many of FPA’s current staff have over the years worked for a number of the aforementioned organisations.

With its roots firmly in the insurance sector, one of FPA’s primary roles is to encourage convergence of government (life safety) and insurer (life safety and business and property protection) fire protection perspectives. Where government statutory requirements are considered inadequate by insurers for business and property protection, the FPA develops and maintains a number of key insurer standards for the implementation of active and passive fire protection requirements, together with a substantial library of Risk Control documents.

FPA relocated to the Fire Service College at Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire in 2004.

Function

The agreed aims and objectives of the FPA are:

Structure

FPA operates via two divisions, each led by a Director. The Commercial Division encompasses the publications, Fire Risk Management journal, fire risk assessment, risk surveying and training activities, while the Technical Division undertakes research, and consultancy in support of all aspects of fire prevention and protection.

The FPA supplies publications in the fields of fire safety, fire prevention and related topics. The range covers a wide variety of products including videos, DVDs, CDs and online services, books, codes of practice, recommendations, reports, leaflets, pocket cards and posters.

The Training Department currently offers approximately 55 different courses covering fire safety management, fire safety engineering, health and safety and N/SVQs in fire safety.

RISC Authority

The RISC Authority (Risk, Insight, Strategy and Control Authority), who conduct research and representation on behalf of a group of UK Insurers into risk mitigation measures from fire and security risks, is administered by the FPA. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insurance</span> Equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another in exchange for payment

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.

Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional management discipline focused on the efficient and effective delivery of logistics and other support services related to real property and buildings. It encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality, comfort, safety and efficiency of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The profession is certified through Global Facility Management Association member organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Fire Protection Association</span> International nonprofit organization

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a U.S.-based international nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property, and economic loss due to fire, electrical, and related hazards. As of 2023, the NFPA claims to have 50,000 members and 9,000 volunteers working with the organization through its 250 technical committees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire safety</span> Practices to reduce the results of fire

Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the spread and impact of a fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axa</span> French multinational insurance firm

Axa S.A. is a French multinational insurance company headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It also provides investment management and other financial services as part of its subsidiaries. As of 2023, it is the largest financial services company by revenue in France, and the 4th largest French company.

Fire protection engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to protect people, property, and their environments from the harmful and destructive effects of fire and smoke. It encompasses engineering which focuses on fire detection, suppression and mitigation and fire safety engineering which focuses on human behavior and maintaining a tenable environment for evacuation from a fire. In the United States 'fire protection engineering' is often used to include 'fire safety engineering'.

Markel Group Inc. is a group of companies headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and originally founded in 1930 as an insurance company.

A risk pool is a form of risk management that is mostly practiced by insurance companies, which come together to form a pool to provide protection to insurance companies against catastrophic risks such as floods or earthquakes. The term is also used to describe the pooling of similar risks within the concept of insurance. It is basically like multiple insurance companies coming together to form one. While risk pooling is necessary for insurance to work, not all risks can be effectively pooled in a voluntary insurance bracket unless there is a subsidy available to encourage participation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FM Global</span> American mutual insurance company

FM Global is an American mutual insurance company based in Johnston, Rhode Island, United States, with offices worldwide, that specializes in loss prevention services primarily to large corporations throughout the world in the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) property insurance market sector. "FM Global" is the communicative name of the company, whereas the legal name is "Factory Mutual Insurance Company". FM Global has been named the "Best Property Insurer in the World” by Euromoney Magazine.

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance is an insurance company based in Seoul, South Korea. Incorporated on January 26, 1952, under the name of "Korea Anbo Fire Marine Reinsurance Co.", the company changed its name to Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd., in December 1993, after its takeover by Samsung Group dated back to 1958. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, SFMI in short, is operating property and casualty insurance business and third-party insurance business defined by the Korea Insurance Business Act, while engaging in providing financial services and instruments approved by relevant laws and regulations including the Korea Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act. Its business portfolio consists of automobile insurance, long-term insurance, general insurance, enterprise risk management, annuities, etc. As of the end of 2015, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance has seven overseas subsidiaries in Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Brazil, Europe, US, and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire services in the United Kingdom</span>

The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Building Research Establishment</span> Centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former UK government national laboratory that was privatised in 1997. BRE provides research, advice, training, testing, certification and standards for both public and private sector organisations in the UK and abroad. It has its headquarters in Garston, Hertfordshire, England, with regional sites in Glasgow, Swansea, the US, India, the Middle East and China.

A building control body is an organisation authorised to control building work that is subject to the Building Regulations in England and Wales (similar systems are provided in Northern Ireland, and in Scotland where the term 'building standards' is used. Such regulations or standards are also known as building codes in other parts of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal administration of Switzerland</span> Executive branch of the federal authorities of Switzerland

The federal administration of Switzerland is the ensemble of agencies that constitute, together with the Swiss Federal Council, the executive branch of the Swiss federal authorities. The administration is charged with executing federal law and preparing draft laws and policy for the Federal Council and the Federal Assembly.

Insurance in the United States refers to the market for risk in the United States, the world's largest insurance market by premium volume. According to Swiss Re, of the $6.782 trillion of global direct premiums written worldwide in 2022, $2.959 trillion (43.6%) were written in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of British Insurers</span>

The Association of British Insurers, or ABI, is a trade association made up of insurance companies in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verisk Analytics</span> American data analytics and risk assessment firm

Verisk Analytics, Inc. is an American multinational data analytics and risk assessment firm based in Jersey City, New Jersey, with customers in insurance, natural resources, financial services, government, and risk management sectors. The company uses proprietary data sets and industry expertise to provide predictive analytics and decision support consultations in areas including fraud prevention, actuarial science, insurance coverage, fire protection, catastrophe and weather risk, and data management.

Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) a subsidiary of Opta Information Intelligence Corp., is a provider of data, underwriting, risk management and legal/regulatory services focusing on community fire-protection and fire prevention systems in Canada. Fire Underwriters Survey publishes the Canadian Fire Insurance Grading Index, which is utilized by the property-casualty insurers in that country. Opta Information Intelligence Corp. was acquired by Verisk Analytics Inc. in 2022.

Sadharan Bima Corporation is the one and only state-owned non-life insurer and reinsurer in Bangladesh under the Ministry of Finance, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Both Sadharan Bima Corporation, the non-life insurer, and Jiban Bima Corporation, the life insurer, were created under the Insurance Corporation Act of 1973 of Bangladesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Kingdom cladding crisis</span> Building material flammability issue

The United Kingdom cladding crisis, also known as the cladding scandal, is an ongoing social crisis that followed the Grenfell Tower fire of 14 June 2017 and the Bolton Cube fire of 15 November 2019. The fires revealed that large numbers of buildings had been clad in dangerously combustible materials, comprising a combination of flammable cladding and/or flammable insulation.

References

  1. BRE Group, The Fire Research Station - FRS - a brief history, accessed 18 August 2020
  2. RISC Authority, FAQ Page: Who are RISCAuthority?, accessed 24 November 2020

Further reading