New practitioner survey finds widespread uncertainty around evidencing competence nearly four years after the Building Safety Act
A new white paper published by UK Fire Door Training highlights significant and persistent gaps in how competence is understood, evidenced and applied across the fire door sector.
The State of Fire Door Competence 2026 is based on a national survey of 126 fire door practitioners working in installation, inspection and maintenance roles in England. Conducted in January 2026, the research examines how competence is interpreted in practice following post-Grenfell regulatory reform.
The findings indicate that while the language of competence is now widely recognised, the systems required to evidence and manage it remain underdeveloped.
Nearly four years after the Building Safety Act received Royal Assent, 59% of respondents said they do not know, or are unsure how, to evidence competence. A further 87% reported that they encounter work they believe to be incompetent at least occasionally. Seventy per cent said competence or SKEB is rarely or never discussed on site.
“The sector has learned the terminology, but not the implementation,” said Jonny Millard, Managing Director of UK Fire Door Training. “Many practitioners can describe SKEB, but when asked how they evidence it, the answer is still a certificate. That does not meet the statutory definition of competence.”
The research highlights a recurring issue. Among those who believe they can evidence competence, 85% identified training certificates as their primary proof. Certificates, however, do not demonstrate experience or behaviours, which are explicit components of the competence requirement.
“If the response to ‘how do you evidence SKEB’ is a certificate, that points to a misunderstanding of what is being asked,” Millard said. “The confidence with which that answer is given is itself part of the problem.”
The missing implementation layer
The white paper points to a gap between regulatory intent and operational delivery. The Building Safety Act 2022 established legal duties, and BS 8670-1:2024 set out principles for competence frameworks. However, the practical mechanisms needed to apply these requirements consistently have not been widely adopted.
With the exception of the Specialist Timber Fire Door Installer framework published in 2025, there are no nationally established competence frameworks for fire door inspection or maintenance. This has contributed to fragmented standards and a market where price often becomes the primary basis for comparison.
“Without shared competence benchmarks, clients have little to anchor their expectations to,” Millard said. “When there is no agreed reference point, cost becomes the differentiator and quality becomes harder to assess.”
On-site practice
The survey also examined how competence is addressed in day-to-day site activity. Only 11% of respondents said competence or SKEB is discussed regularly. When asked whether competence is treated consistently across sites, just 8% selected “always”. The most common response was “sometimes”.
“Work allocation is still frequently based on assumption rather than verified competence,” Millard said. “Safety-critical tasks are being assigned without documented evidence that individuals are competent for the specific activities involved. In the current regulatory environment, that carries clear risk.”
The research does identify some positive indicators. Seventy-six per cent of respondents said they feel confident challenging unsafe or substandard work. However, the white paper notes that without structured frameworks, individual challenges rarely translate into systemic improvement.
Recommendations
The report concludes with a series of recommendations aimed at the sector as a whole. These include the development of activity-based competence standards for inspection and maintenance, greater consistency in recognised training pathways, expansion of regulated qualifications, clearer guidance on evidencing SKEB, and wider use of independent validation and revalidation.
“This paper is not presented as a complete solution,” Millard said. “Its purpose is to quantify the problem and set out, clearly and openly, where the sector currently stands.”
UK Fire Door Training has delivered training to more than 10,000 learners since 2021 with a focus on practical courses and regulated qualifications. The organisation works nationally across inspection, installation and maintenance fire door roles.
“We see the same questions repeatedly,” Millard said. “This research reflects what practitioners are telling us every day. Publishing it is about moving the conversation forward and grounding it in evidence.”
Looking ahead
The publication comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny and growing focus on demonstrable competence across the built environment.
“Competence cannot remain abstract,” the report concludes. “It must be demonstrable, defensible and embedded in everyday practice.”
For UK Fire Door Training, the white paper marks the start of a longer-term programme of work to help individuals and organisations build and evidence competence.
“The legal direction is clear,” Millard said. “The outstanding question is whether the sector will put the structures in place to meet it. We intend to contribute constructively to that effort.”
The State of Fire Door Competence 2026 is available to download at
www.ukfiredoortraining.com/state-of-fire-door-competence-2026
