Assembly Point

As the Summer Series of Assembly Point draws to a close, host George Edwardes, Technical Director at the FPA is joined by Dr Joanna Cloy, Senior Project Manager at environmental charity Fidra; and Professor Richard Hull, Professor of Chemistry and Fire Science at the University of Central Lancashire to discuss the toxic impacts of smoke, focusing on chemical flame retardants in household goods. Dr...

Listen to the penultimate episode of Assembly Point’s Summer Series as George Edwardes, Technical Director at the FPA welcomes Louise Clark, Policy Adviser at ABI to discuss the current landscape of cladding remediation from an insurer’s perspective. George and Louise explore the need for a holistic approach to building design and construction that involves insurers early on to understand the insu...

Listen to the latest episode of Assembly Point as George Edwardes, Technical Director at the FPA welcomes Adam Sanders, Technical Director of RiskBase; and Peter Thomas, Host of the My Safety Tech podcast and Founder of MySafetyConsultant.io, to discuss what the continuing development of artificial intelligence (AI) could mean for the fire safety industry. The panel discuss the potential of AI, da...

Listen to the latest episode of Assembly Point as George Edwardes, Technical Director at the FPA is joined by Chris Miles, Commercial Director at the FPA; and Tom Gilbert, CEO at CLM Group to discuss some of the current challenges in the world of fire resistance testing and assessment methods. The panel explore the importance of fire resistance testing and assessment methods, in particular the nee...

In the first episode of the FPA’s 2024 podcast series, George Edwardes, Technical Director at the FPA is joined by Dr Gavin Dunn, Managing Director at the FPA; and Eoin O’Loughlin, Associate Fire Safety Engineer at Arup, to discuss the implications of the zero carbon agenda for fire safety in the built environment. With emerging new technologies, techniques and materials, and with many designers a...

In the concluding episode of the 2023 series, Chris Miles, Commercial Director at the FPA is joined by the FPA's newly appointed Technical Director, George Edwardes; and Andy Miller, Loss Control Engineering Technical Manager at Allianz, to discuss a new fire safety assessment test for external cladding systems, RISC 501, which has been developed following an FPA research project into real world c...

In support of the British Woodworking Federation’s Fire Door Safety Week campaign which aims to raise awareness of the critical role of fire doors, the FPA’s Commercial Director, Chris Miles takes a deep dive into the world of fire doors with Hannah Mansell, UK Group Technical Director at Masonite. Together Chis and Hannah consider the importance and complexity of fire doors and look at the issues...

In the second episode of the Summer Series, Chris Miles, Commercial Director at the FPA is joined by two guests who have been at the forefront of the proposal made by the Fire Sector Federation almost a year ago to develop a national strategy for fire safety. Executive Officer, Steve McGuirk CBE and Active Fire Protection Director, Tom Roche provide an update on the proposal and next steps. Togeth...

In the first episode of Assembly Point’s Summer Series, the FPA’s Commercial Director, Chris Miles is joined by Paul Morell OBE, co-author of the recently published Independent Review of the Construction Product Testing Regime to identify any potential weaknesses in the system and make recommendations for improvement. The two discuss the purpose of the government commissioned review and look at ho...

In the concluding episode of Assembly Point Series 2, Chris Miles, Commercial Director at the FPA leads the discussion on the recent release of the Fire Sector Federation’s white paper on developing a national strategy for fire safety. Chris is joined by Dennis Davis, Executive Officer of the Fire Sector Federation; Adam Turk, CEO at Siderise Group; and Amanda Long, CEO of the Considerate Construc...

The penultimate episode of series 2 of Assembly Point sees Chris Miles, Commercial Director at the FPA joined by Professor Jim Glockling, Former Technical Director at the FPA; and Dr Jonathan Evans, Chief Executive Officer at Ash & Lacy, to discuss fire safety and innovation in the construction industry post-Grenfell.

In the latest episode of Assembly Point, the FPA’s newly appointed Commercial Director, Chris Miles is joined by Helen Hewitt, Chief Executive of the British Woodworking Federation to talk about the importance of passive fire protection measures to the overall built-in fire safety of buildings. They discuss how passive fire protection can be elevated to a higher-level consideration when designing,...

Join Jonathan O’Neill OBE, FPA Managing Director as he speaks to Stephen Howard, Head of the FPA’s Fire Testing and Experimental Unit; and Dorian Lawrence, Managing Director at Façade Remedial Consultants. Together the panel discuss the implications of recent changes in legislation and guidance on making our buildings safer and what we still need to see to effectively assess and manage risk.

Let’s get technical! Join the FPA’s Principal Consultant and suppression systems expert, Dale Kinnersley as he delves into sprinkler and watermist standards with Adrian Kay of Johnson Controls; Alan Crichton from BAFSA; and Stuart Lloyd of Zurich. Representing between them an insurer, a trade body, and a contractor’s perspective, our panel discuss the impact of new standard BS 9251:2021 for reside...

The legal point of view In the latest episode of Assembly Point, Jonathan O’Neill OBE, Managing Director at the FPA, is joined by Sailesh Mehta, Barrister and Head of the Fire Law Team at Red Lion Chambers to discuss the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and prosecuting those who bear responsibility for the tragedy. Together they consider the implications of the removal of the Building Safety Manager role fr...

In the latest episode of Assembly Point, Jonathan O’Neill OBE, FPA Managing Director is joined by Chris Miles, Regional Business Director at UL to explore how building safety in the UK could benefit from international testing practices. For the second part of the episode, Howard Passey, FPA Director of Operations speaks to Marcus Rees, FPA Senior Technical Consultant about the benefits offered by...

In the latest episode of Assembly Point, Dr Jim Glockling, Technical Director at the Fire Protection Association and RISCAuthority is joined by Tom Roche, Senior Consultant at FM Global, and Mike Rooney, Chief Executive Officer at Resilience First, to explore resilience and whether it will ever be fully embedded if not mandated. The panel discuss the need for resilience within the commercial and s...

In our second episode of the series, Howard Passey, FPA Director of Operations is joined by Nick Coombe, Vice Chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Protection Committee & NFCC lead on Building Safety; Andy Frankum, Chair of the National Social Housing Fire Strategy Group, and Steve Emery, Fire Officer at Oxford University to explore vulnerable risks, specifically looking at social h...

The Fire Protection Association Director of Training and Digital Services, Claire Wright kicks off series 2 by talking to Jane Duncan OBE, Chair of the RIBA Expert Advisory Group on Fire Safety, and Clive Johnson, Group Head of Health and Safety at Derwent London PLC. The panel discuss the competency requirements at each stage of the design and construction of a building and how these can be met....

In the concluding episode for series 1 of our Assembly Point podcast, Howard Passey, Director of Operations at the FPA, marks the Fire Protection Association’s 75 th anniversary by talking to Peter Caplehorn, Chief Executive of the Construction Products Association; Adrian Dobson, Secretary of the RIBA EAG; and Dennis Davis, Executive Officer of the Fire Sector Federation. The panel discuss the FP...

In the latest episode of Assembly Point Howard Passey, FPA Director of Operations, talks to Lewis Ramsey, Caretaker Manager at BAFE Fire Safety Register and former Assistant Chief Officer for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, about the key areas to consider when looking at the risk management of fire in buildings occupied by vulnerable people such as schools, hospitals, and care homes. Howard...

In episode 8 of the FPA’s Assembly Point podcast, Jonathan O’Neill OBE – Managing Director at the FPA, speaks to Niall Rowan – Technical and Regulatory Affairs Officer at the Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFA), Russ Timpson – Founder of the Tall Building Fire Safety Network, and Allan Meek – Director of Group SCS. Together the panel explores the implications of the Building Safety B...

In our first panel episode of the series, Claire Wright – Head of Training at the FPA, talks to Anthony Taylor – Chairman of Working Group 8, John Brett – Director of Health and Safety Compliance at Estates & Management Limited, and John Briggs – Commercial Director at the FPA. Together the panel explores the practical steps building managers can take to ensure they follow the competency frame...

In episode 6 of the FPA’s Assembly Point podcast we talk to Tom Roche, Senior Consultant at FM Global. Following Grenfell, the government introduced the mandatory provision of sprinklers in all high-rise buildings over 11 metres tall. Tom and Howard explore the fact that sprinklers have still not been made mandatory for all new or major refurbished school buildings in England in the revised Buildi...

In episode 5 of the FPA’s Assembly Point podcast, join our host Howard Passey as he speaks with Catherine Levin, Political Editor at FIRE Magazine. Four years on from Grenfell, Catherine and Howard explore if the provision of fire safety has improved since that tragic day in June 2017, whether the subsequent changes in legislation will be enough to bring about meaningful change. Previously Deputy...