Independent Technical Authority in Hazardous Area Assurance

Many organisations assume that once they have a DSEAR Risk Assessment, they are fully compliant. In reality, the risk assessment is only one part of meeting legal obligations. Compliance requires that the assessment is carried out by a competent person or body, that its recommendations are implemented and that processes are in place to maintain ongoing control.

Appointing a Technical Authority provides the assurance that these steps are being managed correctly. A Technical Authority validates that the risk assessment has been applied in practice, ensures zoning and ignition risk decisions are technically sound and confirms that control measures and documentation remain aligned with legislation. This independent oversight strengthens defensibility, gives clear ownership of decisions and provides confidence in the event of audits, enforcement action or incident investigations.

ATEX is the EU directive covering equipment and protective systems in explosive atmospheres. In the UK, this has been replaced by the UKCA (UKEX) marking. Both require conformity assessment and documentation, but UKCA is regulated under UK law. The UK government has extended recognition of CE marking for placing ATEX products on the market in Great Britain indefinitely beyond December 2024. The decision to apply UKEX on products being placed on the market in Great Britain is now the manufacturer’s choice.

This means that as 2025, manufacturers can choose to use either:

CE marking under ATEX (EU regulations), or UKCA marking under UKEX (UK regulations).

Both are currently accepted in the UK market, though the technical requirements of UKEX mirror those of ATEX.

Structured process safety studies provide a systematic, engineering led approach to hazard identification and risk reduction across all phases of the plant lifecycle. Techniques such as HAZID, HAZOP, LOPA, and SIL determination enable traceable evaluation of initiating events, safeguard effectiveness, and tolerable risk criteria in line with ALARP principles.

These studies form the technical backbone of a site’s safety case or explosion protection strategy ensuring that risk reduction measures are not only applied, but justified. Conducted at defined project gateways, they support functional safety compliance (e.g. IEC 61511), facilitate design stage intervention and create a defensible basis for operational and maintenance decisions under DSEAR, COMAH, and wider regulatory frameworks.

A Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) evaluates fire hazards, means of escape, detection and protection systems to ensure compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It is a legal requirement for most premises and forms the foundation of a site’s fire safety management strategy.

A Fire and Explosion Risk Assessment (FERA) goes further, incorporating both fire and explosion scenarios such as flash fires, pool fires, jet fires, and vapour cloud explosions (VCE) often in higher risk or COMAH regulated environments. FERA integrates consequence modelling, escalation risk and cross-discipline interfaces with DSEAR, ATEX, and process safety.

At XES, we deliver both FRA and FERA ensuring that fire and explosion risks are not only identified but understood, mitigated and fully defensible.