The must attend fire safety event of the year
The BSI Fire Safety Conference convenes the UK and Europe’s most influential voices in fire safety , from regulators, standards leaders, and frontline practitioners, to consider recent changes in legislation and standards, and translate them into practical, day-to-day application. Whether you're a responsible person, asset owner or manager, designer, contractor, assessor, or supplier, this is your opportunity to get ahead of what's next in fire safety and lead equipped with actionable insights, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) learning, and real-world tools.
Key topics addressed include building and residential safety, product compliance and testing, competency and clearly defined roles, and the digital “golden thread” of fire safety information. The conference provides CPD-style learning opportunities and practical advice that can be applied immediately. Whether you are a responsible person, asset owner or manager, designer, contractor, assessor, or supplier, this event will equip you to implement standards effectively and confidently update your specifications, procedures, and training.
When & Where:
- Thursday, 29 January 2026 | 09:30 – 16:30 (GMT)
- Location: IET London: Savoy Place
Who should attend?
- Fire safety advisors and other fire safety professionals
- Government and local councils
- Building managers and landlords
- Contractors and construction professionals
- Architects
- Facilities management professionals
- Safety and security experts
- Equipment buyers
- House builders and housing associations
Agenda of the day:
09:30 - Welcome and introduction by the Fire Sector Confederation
09:45 - Update on the Building Safety Regulator by Andrew Roe, with Q&A
10:15 - Update on the revision of PAS 9980 by Dr David Crowder
10:45 - Update on FSH/0 and the future direction of BSI fire safety technical committees by Aman Sharma
11:15 - Coffee break
11:25 - Q&A panel - David Crowder & Aman Sharma
--------------------------------
12:00 - Lunch break
--------------------------------
12:45 - Update on development of BS 9994 Fire strategies in buildings, by Aman Sharma
13:05 - Update on development of BS 9996 Commissioning and maintenance of integrated fire safety systems, by Richard Clark
13:25 - Update on future of BS 8644-1:2022 Digital management of fire safety information, by Varun Soni
13:40 - Q&A session - Aman Sharma, Richard Clark, Varun Soni
--------------------------------
14:00 - Coffee break
--------------------------------
14:20 - Update from Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures in UK (CROSS UK), by Dr Peter Wilkinson
14:40 - Presentations on BS 5266-1 Emergency lighting, by Chris Watts.
15:00 - Q&A session - Peter Wilkinson, Chris Watts
15:20 - The future of Approved Document B (with Q&A), by Alex Vousden
15:50 - Conclusion with Aman Sharma
16:10 - Networking
16:30 - Event ends
Find out about accommodation options here
Discover our partnership and sponsorship opportunities
Join us as a sponsor or partner of the Fire Conference 2026 and showcase your commitment to protecting lives, supporting innovation and leading the way in building safer communities.
Limited partnership opportunities are available for this event, starting from just £750 - don’t miss the chance to align your brand with fire safety excellence. To learn more, please click the link below or email Ross Matthews at Ross.Matthews@bsigroup.com.
Find out more about partnership packages
Meet the Speakers:
Aman Sharma
Chair of BSI’s FSH/0 Fire & Built Environment Sector Policy and Strategy Committee, Aman is a prominent leader and influential voice in transforming fire safety across the built environment. With a distinguished background as both a former fire and rescue service officer and a fire engineer, he combines extensive operational and technical expertise with a commitment to advancing fire safety through digital innovation and information management. Aman was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s New Year Honours List 2025.
|
Lord Andrew Roe
Andy Roe the Chair of the Building Safety Regulator, joined the London Fire Brigade (LFB) in January 2002 as a firefighter, serving at every rank before being appointed as London Fire Commissioner in January 2020. Retiring in July 2025, Andy led the Brigade, one of the world's largest emergency services, and London’s fire safety regulator, through wholescale reform in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Prior to joining LFB Andy served for a number of years as an officer in the British Army. In July 2025 Andy was appointed as the Chair of the Building Safety Regulator. Alongside this he is an independent strategic safety advisor to TFL (Transport for London) and a non-executive director of GB (Olympic) Boxing. Andy received a life peerage and became a member of the House of Lords in January 2026.
|
Richard Clark
Richard’s career in fire started over 21 years ago as a firefighter in the London Fire Brigade. After 3 years he moved into fire safety regulation with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue where he held a variety of roles over 13 years. During this time, he also completed an MSc in Fire and Explosion Engineering at the University of Leeds. For the last 6 years, he has worked with the National Fire Chiefs Council as a Senior Fire Engineer with the Protection Team. He is also the Chair of the NFCC Fire Engineering and Technical Standards group and represent NFCC on a range of British Standards Committees.
|
 Varun Soni
Varun is NIMA’s Vice Chair for Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management. He was a key member of the BS 8644-1 Digital Management of Fire Safety Information standard . He is a member of the Building Advisory Committee’s Golden Thread Working Group.
|
Dr Peter Wilkinson
Peter Wilkinson is founder and Director of Pyrology Limited, providing a wide range of safety, fire and risk engineering services to both established buildings and new-build projects. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), the international organisation for fire professionals, helping to promote the profession and register professional engineers with the Engineering Council.
|
 Chris Watts
Chris Watts has chaired many of the BSI and international committees that forged the new emergency lighting standards that form an essential support to engineers developing appropriate systems to meet customers safety applications. He joined BSI committees 50 years ago working on the production of the first British Standard BS5266-L:1975 on Emergency lighting Part 1 Code of practice for emergency lighting of premises. He was then became deeply involved in international product standards for emergency lighting systems.
|
Dr David Crowder
David is a partner at DCCH Experts LLP, a firm specialised in the provision of expert fire safety advice in relation to fire incident investigation, building defects and challenging engineering problems. He has extensive experience in the field of fire safety, having been involved in a wide range of large-scale experimental work, testing, inspections and fire investigations, particularly with respect to new developments in the built environment. He specialises in investigating fire development, the performance of fire protection measures and systems during real fire incidents, and the regulatory aspects of performance in these areas. He is a Chartered Engineer registered with the Engineering Council by the Institution of Fire Engineers and holds a PhD in the impact of fire chemistry in fatal fires, examined via the investigation, reconstruction and hazard analysis of real fires. Major fire investigations he has worked on include the Atherstone on Stour warehouse fire, Royal Marsden Hospital, the Cutty Sark, Lakanal House and the Grenfell Tower fire.
|
 Alex Vousden
Alex has worked as an Architectural Technologist across multiple sectors throughout his career. In the post Grenfell regulatory changes Alex led his company's adaption of working processes to ensure they were capable of delivering the Building Regulations Principal Designer role and incorporating this with the existing CDM Principal Designer function. He has also led design teams on HRBs in a changing regulatory landscape and worked extensively on EV destination charging when it was an emerging typology. This interest in legislation has led him to join the Technical Policy Team of the BSR and is working on Part B of the Building Regulations.
|
Simón Santamaria
Simón is a fire engineer with expertise in developing fire safety strategies for projects across all markets. His experience includes modelling fire dynamics as well as mass timber and material performance under fire. He’s also researched travelling fires and the fire safety of battery energy storage systems. He also serves as the vice president of the UK's Society of Fire Protection Engineers Chapter, is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University, and sits on the committee of the British Standards Institution, which oversees the development of fire safety engineering standards. He was part of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry where he was part of a team that investigated the driving mechanisms of fire growth in façade fires.
|
Meet our expo partners
Our Partner:
 |
