Smoke control maintenance is life‑safety assurance: a dutyholder’s ability to demonstrate that critical fire safety systems have been serviced correctly, by competent people, to recognised standards. SMR 01 was created to make that competence provable.
Today, FDS Maintenance is proud to announce that it has successfully achieved SMR 01 (Smoke Control Service, Maintenance & Repair) certification following completion of the Kiwa / IFC Certification Ltd (IFCC) audit and assessment process.
FDS Maintenance is one of the first smoke ventilation maintenance companies in the United Kingdom to be fully certified to SMR 01.
What SMR 01 is, in plain English
SMR 01 is a structured, audited third‑party certification scheme created specifically for organisations that service, maintain and repair smoke control and smoke ventilation systems. It is designed to give dutyholders confidence that maintenance is competent, consistent, and aligned with recognised standards, not merely recorded or “ticked off”.
The scheme sits within the wider Service, Maintenance & Repair (SMR) framework, developed to address a long‑standing problem in the built environment: maintenance has too often been less consistently defined and independently verified than installation, despite the life‑safety consequences of failure.
Crucially, SMR 01 is developed under UKAS accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065, reinforcing independence and robustness in the certification process.
What Kiwa assessed to award SMR 01
SMR 01 is designed to test three things together:
| Organisational competence and governance | Service engineer competence | On‑site performance |
| (how you control quality, procedures, records, oversight).
|
(training, technical understanding, evidence of capability).
|
Through live service engineer site inspection audits (observing maintenance activity in real environments).
|
Kiwa’s published SMR 01 route describes a structured process: application and initial review, office‑based competency assessment, live site inspection audits, non‑conformity review and corrective action, then certification decision, followed by annual surveillance and periodic site inspections scaled to the number of employed service engineers.
SMR 01 is also explicit that successful organisations are entered onto the IFC Certification register (a key route for procurement teams and dutyholders to check status).
Systems covered by SMR 01, and what that means for clients
SMR 01 applies to organisations maintaining smoke control systems including:
- Natural smoke ventilation (AOVs / NSHEV‑type systems)
- Mechanical smoke extract systems
- Pressurisation systems
- Car park smoke control & smoke ventilation systems
- Smoke dampers and associated controls
This matters because smoke control systems are often mixed‑technology systems: mechanical and electrical components, control logic, cause‑and‑effect, standby power, interfaces, and site‑specific performance intent. Maintenance quality isn’t judged by attendance, it’s judged by whether the system will perform as designed, and whether you can defend that with evidence.
Why it matters for dutyholders and procurement
Whether you are a building owner, responsible person, managing agent, or facilities team, your challenge is rarely a lack of contractors. It’s a lack of defensible assurance.
Under Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person must ensure that relevant fire safety facilities and equipment are subject to a suitable system of maintenance and kept in efficient working order and good repair where necessary to safeguard relevant persons.
At the same time, the post‑Grenfell regulatory direction of travel has been to move from trust‑based approaches to evidence‑based accountability, including the in‑occupation regime and dutyholder expectations under the Building Safety Act 2022 for higher‑risk residential buildings, supported by government guidance for accountable persons.
SMR 01 is built precisely for that environment: “trust by evidence” rather than “trust by assumption”.
What this changes for customers of FDS Maintenance
SMR 01 is not just a logo. It is a procurement‑grade way of answering: “How do we know maintenance is being done properly?”
For clients, that translates into:
- Greater confidence in competence: the organisation and engineers are assessed, not assumed.
- Stronger audit readiness: certification is structured around procedures, documentation and on‑site performance.
- Reduced liability risk through evidence: third‑party verified competence supports defensible compliance.
- Confidence that critical systems remain fit for purpose: SMR 01 is designed to strengthen reliability of life‑safety smoke control systems.
Our Associate Technical Director, Simon Sheldon had this to say regarding the achievement:
“Gaining the SMR 01 certification is a fantastic achievement for our business to and will really help our customers evidence their life safety systems are properly maintained and remain safe for building occupation. This in turn helps industry stakeholders drive down risks and help building occupant feel safe.
Being one of the first companies to be certified to this brand-new competence scheme shows the commitment of the FDS Group in driving forward industry excellence for compliance in our life safety systems. This is yet another step in following the Golden Thread in supporting both Gateway 3 and ongoing building safety cases.”
