MHCLG published its fire prevention and protection statistics for England on 2 September 2026, covering April 2025 to March 2026. Prohibition notices rose 27% in one year to 1,224 and enforcement notices reached 1,896. Formal enforcement is up 46% over six years while prosecutions fell 37%. Fire and rescue authorities are shifting from prosecuting after an incident towards notices that force remediation spend immediately.
Fire safety enforcement in England: what the 2026 statistics tell duty holders
Fire and rescue authorities in England issued 1,224 prohibition notices in the year ending March 2026, a rise of 27% on the previous year, while prosecutions fell to 33 from 35. Formal enforcement action has risen 46% over six years and prosecutions have fallen 37% over the same period. The practical consequence for a duty holder is that the realistic financial exposure in 2026 is a notice that restricts the use of your building, not a court fine.
These figures come from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government release published on 2 September 2026, covering April 2025 to March 2026. Everything below is drawn from that release.
The headline numbers
| Measure | Year ending March 2026 | Year ending March 2025 | One-year change | Year ending March 2020 | Six-year change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire safety audits completed | 50,195 | 50,996 | Down 1.6% | 48,414 | Up 3.7% |
| Satisfactory audits | 29,909 (60%) | 30,301 (59%) | Down 1.3% | 31,978 | Down 6.5% |
| Unsatisfactory audits | 20,286 | 20,695 | Down 2.0% | 16,436 | Up 23.4% |
| Formal notifications | 3,355 | 3,026 | Up 11% | 2,295 | Up 46% |
| Enforcement notices (Article 30) | 1,896 | 1,773 | Up 6.9% | 1,347 | Up 41% |
| Prohibition notices (Article 31) | 1,224 | 965 | Up 27% | 788 | Up 55% |
| Alteration notices (Article 29) | 202 | 253 | Down 20% | 108 | Up 87% |
| Prosecutions (Article 32) | 33 | 35 | Down 5.7% | 52 | Down 37% |
Two out of every five audits still record an unsatisfactory outcome. Fire and rescue authorities completed 50,195 audits and recorded 20,286 of them as unsatisfactory. The satisfactory rate of 60% is marginally better than the 59% recorded a year earlier and better than the series low of 58% in the year ending March 2024, so the picture is one of a persistent failure rate rather than an improving one.
The shift that matters commercially
Formal enforcement is up 46% over six years. Prosecutions are down 37% over the same six years. Prohibition notices, which are the notices that stop premises or parts of premises being used, rose 27% in a single year.
Read together, those three movements describe a change in enforcement behaviour. Fire and rescue authorities are putting resource into notices that compel remediation now, and putting less resource into prosecutions that conclude years after the event. For a facilities manager or estates director budgeting for 2026 and 2027, the exposure to plan for is not a fine at a magistrates' court. The exposure to plan for is a prohibition notice that closes a floor, a wing, a kitchen or a whole building until specified matters have been remedied, with the cost falling as an unbudgeted remediation contract plus the lost trading days, bed nights or room nights while the restriction stands.
A prohibition notice under Article 31 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 takes effect immediately or from a date the notice specifies. It does not come with a comfortable period to arrange procurement. That is covered in detail in our guide to what happens when you receive a prohibition notice.
Where enforcement notices landed
Enforcement notices under Article 30 accounted for 1,896 of the 3,355 formal notifications, which is 57% of all formal action. The three premises types receiving the most enforcement notices were:
- Shops, with 347 notices, accounting for 18% of all enforcement notices issued.
- Purpose-built flats of 6 to 9 storeys, with 211 notices, accounting for 11%.
- Licensed premises, with 195 notices, accounting for 10%.
The second entry on that list is the one worth pausing on. Purpose-built flats of 6 to 9 storeys also recorded the highest proportion of unsatisfactory audits of any premises type in England, at 51% of the 1,303 audits carried out in that premises type. The duty for the common parts of those buildings sits with freeholders, managing agents and housing associations. We have written that finding up separately in why purpose-built flats fail fire safety audits more than any other building type.
Which premises types are being audited
Three premises types accounted for 40% of all fire safety audits in England:
- Shops, 8,932 audits, down 12% on the previous year, satisfactory rate 58%.
- Care homes, 6,004 audits, down 7.0% on the previous year, satisfactory rate 61%.
- Licensed premises, 4,940 audits, down 2.5% on the previous year, satisfactory rate 52%.
Care homes were the second most audited premises type in England. A satisfactory rate of 61% across 6,004 audits means roughly 2,342 care home audits recorded an unsatisfactory outcome in twelve months. Care home operators can see the full year of statutory duties in our care home statutory compliance checklist.
Schools recorded the highest satisfactory rate of any premises type at 72% of 2,234 audits.
Purpose-built flats of 10 storeys and over saw audits rise 28% in one year, from 756 to 965, and the satisfactory rate fall 12.9 percentage points, from 66% to 53%. The average time spent on an audit in that premises type was 9.4 hours, which is 3.8 hours above the overall average of 5.6 hours. Across all purpose-built flats of four storeys and above, audits rose 10% in one year to 4,696 and rose 35% over six years.
Audits are taking longer, which tells you what inspectors are finding
The average time spent on a fire safety audit rose to 5.6 hours in the year ending March 2026, compared with 5.2 hours the previous year and 4.4 hours six years ago. An unsatisfactory audit took 6.6 hours on average against 4.9 hours for a satisfactory one, a difference of 1.7 hours.
The practical reading is that inspectors are spending longer in buildings because they are finding more to record, and a building with poor documentation costs the inspector time that the inspector then spends writing up non-compliance. Having the evidence pack ready is the single cheapest thing a duty holder can do to shorten an audit. Our contractor vetting and accreditation guide sets out what a competent specialist should be handing you at the end of every inspection.
The most breached articles of the Fire Safety Order
Where premises fail, fire and rescue authorities record the specific articles breached. Article 14, covering emergency routes and exits, was the most frequently breached provision with 11,286 recorded breaches, up 9.3% on the previous year and up 39% over six years, accounting for 13% of all breaches.
The three fastest-growing breach types over six years are worth noting because they are not what the sector talks about. Article 10, principles of prevention to be applied, recorded 3,348 breaches, up 110% over six years. Article 19, provision of information to employees, recorded 3,954 breaches, up 89%. Article 11, fire safety arrangements, recorded 5,240 breaches, up 67% over six years and up 25% in a single year, which is the fastest one-year rise in the top ten.
Article 15, procedures for serious and imminent danger, was the only article in the top ten to record a fall, down 0.7% to 7,955 breaches.
We have broken all ten down, with what each article actually requires and what evidence closes it, in the ten most breached articles of the Fire Safety Order.
One gap in the national picture
The release states that it does not include statistics relating to the fire safety requirements that came into effect on 1 October 2023 under section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022.
That is a material gap. Section 156 introduced the duties that produced quarterly checks of communal fire doors and annual checks of flat entrance doors in buildings above 11 metres, along with the recorded fire risk assessment requirement. Those duties are generating substantial compliance activity across the residential sector, and there is currently no national measure of how well the sector is meeting them. Anyone benchmarking their own section 156 performance has no national comparator to benchmark against. Our fire door inspection requirements guide covers what the duties actually are.
What a duty holder should do with these figures
- Assume a notice, not a prosecution. Prohibition notices rose 27% in one year. Prosecutions fell. Plan the downside case around a restriction on the use of your building and the cost of removing it quickly.
- Check Article 14 first. Emergency routes and exits generated 11,286 recorded breaches, more than any other article. Walk every escape route in every building this month and record what you find with a date and a photograph.
- Check your fire safety arrangements documentation. Article 11 breaches rose 25% in a single year. Article 11 is about arrangements, meaning who does what, how often, and how it is recorded. It is the article most often failed on paperwork rather than on hardware.
- If you hold purpose-built flats, treat them as the priority. They are the worst performing premises type in England on audit outcome and the second highest recipient of enforcement notices.
- Get your evidence pack to the point where an audit takes four hours instead of seven. Every hour an inspector spends looking for a document is an hour spent forming a view about your management arrangements.
Frequently asked
How many fire safety enforcement notices were issued in England last year?
Fire and rescue authorities in England issued 1,896 enforcement notices under Article 30 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in the year ending March 2026. That was 57% of all 3,355 formal notifications, and an increase of 6.9% on the 1,773 issued the previous year. Enforcement notices have risen 41% over six years.
Are fire safety prosecutions increasing in England?
No. Fire and rescue authorities brought 33 prosecutions in the year ending March 2026, down from 35 the previous year and down 37% from 52 six years earlier. Formal enforcement action rose 46% over the same six-year period, so authorities are serving more notices and bringing fewer prosecutions. Prosecution is a rare outcome, and a notice is the realistic one.
What proportion of fire safety audits fail?
Two in five. Fire and rescue authorities completed 50,195 fire safety audits in England in the year ending March 2026 and recorded 20,286 as unsatisfactory, giving a satisfactory rate of 60%. The series low was 58% in the year ending March 2024. An unsatisfactory outcome means further action is needed to bring the premises into compliance.
Which building type fails fire safety audits most often?
Purpose-built flats of 6 to 9 storeys. In the year ending March 2026, 51% of the 1,303 audits carried out in that premises type recorded an unsatisfactory outcome, the highest proportion of any premises type in England. That premises type also received 211 enforcement notices, which was 11% of all enforcement notices issued and second only to shops.
What is the most commonly breached article of the Fire Safety Order?
Article 14, covering emergency routes and exits. Fire and rescue authorities recorded 11,286 Article 14 breaches during audits in the year ending March 2026, accounting for 13% of all recorded breaches. That was an increase of 9.3% on the previous year and an increase of 39% over six years. Article 17 on maintenance was second with 9,727 breaches.
How many care homes are audited for fire safety each year?
Care homes were the second most audited premises type in England, with 6,004 fire safety audits in the year ending March 2026. That was a decrease of 7.0% on the previous year. The satisfactory rate for care homes was 61%, which means approximately 2,342 care home audits recorded an unsatisfactory outcome within twelve months.
Where can I check whether a notice has been served on a building?
The National Fire Chiefs Council hosts the national public register of statutory notices served by fire and rescue authorities, published under the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988. Notices appear three weeks after issue to allow for appeals and remain for three years unless still in force, deemed not complied with, or withdrawn. NFCC does not warrant the accuracy of the entries.
Sources & further reading
