BS 5306-3 service report: what to include
A BS 5306-3 service report is the written record a competent person leaves with the responsible person after servicing portable fire extinguishers. It states the condition of every extinguisher on the site, explains anything condemned, lists what needs replacing or adding, and names who did the work and when. The standard lists twelve things it should contain.
For how often each service falls due, see how often fire extinguishers need servicing.
BS 5306-3 is a code of practice, so these items are recommendations. The legal duty sits with the responsible person. In England and Wales, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires them to keep firefighting equipment maintained in efficient working order and good repair, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own equivalents. The standard sets out what that maintenance looks like in practice, and the report is how both the servicing company and the site show it was done.
What a BS 5306-3 service report contains
The standard gives no set wording. It lists what the report covers and leaves the words to the servicing company. These are paraphrased, not quoted, so your technicians' own copy of the standard stays the reference.
- The state of every extinguisher: serviceable, corrective action required, condemned, or missing if the unit wasn't found. Any advice for the customer goes here too.
- A statement that every extinguisher, except those listed as not conforming, was maintained to the standard.
- The reason each condemned unit was condemned.
- The replacements needed for condemned, corrective-action and missing units.
- Any extra extinguishers or actions the site needs, and a reminder that providing suitable equipment is the responsible person's duty.
- A statement that replacements and additions should be provided as soon as possible.
- The servicing company's name, postal address and telephone number.
- The technician who did the work and the date.
- The responsible person's acknowledgment, or the reason there wasn't one.
- Guidance on the site's fire risk assessment, and whether the technician was shown it.
- Guidance on keeping a fire log book.
- Any extinguisher that is in the wrong place for the hazard it covers.
Items 1 to 4 record what was found and what was done about it. Items 9 to 11 are easy to overlook when you build a report from scratch, since they are about the site and the people rather than the extinguishers.
One visit, written up
This is a made-up example. A fire servicing company visits an office unit with six extinguishers.
Four are water and foam units. Each gets a basic service, and the report marks them serviceable.
One is a CO2 unit. It has no pressure gauge, so the technician weighs it against the charged weight stamped on the cylinder. It has lost less than the standard allows, so it is serviceable.
One is a dry powder unit. It has lost more weight than the standard allows against its reference mass, so it needs a recharge before it can be signed off. The report records it as corrective action required, with the reason, and adds it to the list of replacements and actions.
The responsible person is out. The report says so and gives the reason, which covers item 9. When they receive the report they acknowledge it, and that is dated too.
Everything in that visit has to agree afterward: the unit's service history, the label on the cylinder, the report, the next due dates, the log book and the client's copy.
Three service dates on every extinguisher
The report also has to leave the site with correct next-service dates. Each extinguisher carries up to three clocks.
| Service | What it is | Interval |
|---|---|---|
| Basic service | Yearly check by a competent person | 12 months from the last service of any kind, or from commissioning |
| Extended service | Deeper service with a test discharge, for water-based and powder units | 5 years (10 for primary-sealed powder) |
| Overhaul | Long-cycle service with a pressure test, for CO2, clean agent and halon | 10 years from manufacture or the last overhaul |
The first extended service falls five years after commissioning or six after manufacture, whichever comes first, so a unit that sat in a storeroom before it was fitted is due sooner than its install date suggests. A higher service counts for the lower ones, so an extended service resets the basic clock. The standard also allows a month either side of a due date, so a unit can be serviced a month early without being late, and only counts as overdue a month after.
Where a spreadsheet slips
A sheet holds an extinguisher list well, and it is a common place to start. Our free service log template lays out the monthly, annual and extended records if you want one. The trouble comes from the date rules above. Three clocks per unit, with different intervals by type and a reset between them, means a formula per column and someone who remembers why. When that person leaves, the dates keep showing and quietly stop being right.
The second slip is the report itself. Visit notes are written in one place, the PDF is built in another, and the next-due dates get copied across by hand. Each copy is a chance for the report, the label and the register to disagree.
How AssetOS produces the report
Fire safety in AssetOS is built around the standard's servicing schedule and the contents of its service report. It works out the three due dates for each unit. The technician scans the unit's QR label on a phone and answers the checks, and the visit can't close until every unit is recorded and the responsible person's acknowledgment is recorded, or the reason it couldn't be given. The service report and certificate is then issued from that visit's records, numbered, as a PDF and a DOCX. If nobody acknowledged on site, it is emailed to the site contact with a link to acknowledge receipt. A QR code on the PDF opens a check page showing whether the certificate is current, superseded or revoked, so a fire officer or insurer can confirm it.
There are limits. The responsible person can't sign on the phone yet. There is no resend, so a missed email means sending the PDF yourself or re-issuing the report. The report's statements use AssetOS's default wording, which you can change to your own. AssetOS records each technician's qualifications, such as BAFE SP101 registration, and won't let a missing or expired one complete the work, but it doesn't check anything with BAFE. It covers UK servicing under BS 5306-3 only, and it makes no claim that your service is compliant: that claim belongs to your company and its technicians.
Fire safety is included from the Basic plan, and the 14-day free trial includes it (see pricing). Sharing certificates and monthly checks with your clients in their own portal needs Managed Services, on Professional and above, and the client gets a free account to see them. More on how fire and safety service firms use AssetOS.
Get sample QR labels
Every visit starts with a technician scanning the label on the extinguisher. To see how a tagged register works before you change anything, request free sample QR asset labels and we'll post them to you.
Shane Price
Writing about maintenance management, CMMS implementation, and the real challenges operations teams face.