CROSS-UK paper questions confidence placed in fire test assessments for products

Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS-UK) has published a Topic Paper on fire test evidence and product assurance, prompted by several Safety Reports about construction products used without fire test evidence for their specific application.

CROSS-UK's page dates the paper 22 October 2026. FIS alerted its members to it on 23 October, saying the paper would be relevant to those working in fire safety, fire engineering, building design, construction, building control and product manufacture and supply.

According to CROSS-UK, the Safety Reports it received concerned products where application-specific fire test evidence either is not available or does not directly correspond to the intended use.

In those cases, CROSS-UK said, fire performance is often supported by a combination of test data and engineering assessment, and sometimes by general statements about expected performance. The reports suggest the basis for such assurances is not always clearly defined, and the level of confidence implied may not reflect the underlying evidence.

What the paper covers

CROSS-UK said the paper considers how fire test evidence is interpreted in practice, the role of assessment in supporting that evidence, and the broader issue of product assurance.

The organisation lists manufacturers and product suppliers among the intended readers, alongside contractors and specialist installers. The readership also takes in building control bodies and regulators, building owners, dutyholders and Responsible Persons, and insurers and fire risk assessors.

Background

The paper is not the first time CROSS has raised the gap between how a product is tested and how it is used. In a Safety Report published in June 2024 on fire test data for sound-reduction products, its key learning point for manufacturers was that products should be safe in the orientation of their intended use.

Guidance has also come from the Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP). The trade body published Advisory Note 35 in January 2026 to help designers and end users judge whether fire test reports are suitable as supporting fire safety information. Its earlier Advisory Note 34, published in November 2024, covers the suitability of supporting fire safety information more generally.

CROSS-UK's legal entity is equally owned by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), and is now also supported by the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE).

Its fire safety remit dates from 2020, when the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government funded the expansion of CROSS-UK to cover fire safety, fulfilling recommendation 1.4c of the Hackitt report. Structural-Safety, SCOSS and CROSS were brought together under the CROSS name in 2021.

The predecessor scheme, SCOSS, was funded and steered by IStructE and ICE, with the Health and Safety Executive joining them in 1995.

The Topic Paper is available on the CROSS-UK website.