In April 2016, after a consultation and with the agreement of its board and council, the fire protection industry third party certification body BAFE (British Approvals for Fire Equipment) launched a review of their SP101/ST104 scheme. That’s Contract Maintenance of Portable Fire Extinguishers incorporating Registered Fire Extinguisher Service Technicians.
The result of this review is the newly named SP101:2017 (Competency of Portable Fire Extinguisher Organisations and Technicians). BAFE describe it as a ‘ground up’ revision of the SP101/ST104 scheme, acknowledging that companies must ensure their technicians are skilled and always aware of how to execute competent extinguisher maintenance and their ability remains at a high standard. Changes are also proposed to the company QA requirements with a dual option of ISO9001:15 or a certificated Quality Management System.
This is now ready for public comment and BAFE invite feedback on these proposed changes. For further information and to download and read the proposed SP101:2017 scheme document in full, visit the BAFE website: www.bafe.org.uk/sp101-2017.
The consultation is live from January 9 and closes March 6, 2017. The body stresses that the full scheme document should be read in totality, for readers to be able to comment on the full revised scheme requirements.
