As we swiftly approach the issuing of new guidance in the fire safety of building through Approved Document B, set to arrive in September 2029, the team at JQA and I decided to create a brief 3-page document about the changes and how they can be dealt with. Those of you that know me, understand that I can and will challenge the ‘we have always done it that way’ route to market for most things to do with fire. The interpretation of the documents in question, Approved Document B and a range of Extended Field of Application BS EN Standard seem to indicate a certain path, we seek to give the industry options and a certain degree of what we believe is clarity regarding who is eligible to write EXAP’s and the wording in the guidance that ADB contains.

The key take away from our document, is the perceived impressions of the word “should” and the phrase “for example” as opposed to their English Dictionary definitions. The English language being complex and words having different meanings depending on context and the knowledge and understanding level of those that read the document.

Our aim, as a team of fire safety experts, is to expand the awareness and knowledge of others in this field – taking it upon ourselves to show those that need or use these documents and have been persuaded to travel down a certain path to challenge the perception that only an extremely limited number of organisations can write EXAPs. Our contention is that those with the necessary, Skills, Knowledge, Education and Experience can and should be writing these documents, regardless of their company names.