Roughly three in four fire doors inspected in the UK fail to meet the required standard — a headline figure that has barely moved since 2019. This page brings together the key UK fire door statistics in one place: failure rates, the most common defects, installation volumes, post-Grenfell test results and the legal check requirements. The data comes from the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS), the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) and the government’s own fire door testing programme and guidance published on GOV.UK.
Key facts and figures
- 72% of fire doors inspected in 2025 failed to meet the required standard (FDIS).
- 75% of fire doors failed inspection in 2021, across more than 100,000 FDIS inspections — 76% failed in 2019.
- 77% of faulty fire doors had excessive gaps between the door and its frame (2021 data).
- 70% of the fire doors that failed in 2025 needed only minor remedial work to pass.
- ~3 million new fire doors are bought and installed in the UK every year, the majority timber (BWF).
- ~15 minutes — how long a Grenfell Tower flat-entrance fire door lasted in a 30-minute fire-resistance test.
- 39% of tenants have seen fire doors wedged or propped open in residential buildings.
- Quarterly — the minimum legal frequency for communal fire door checks in English residential buildings over 11 metres.
These figures are the latest available as of July 2026 — FDIS publishes new inspection findings periodically (most recently for 2025) and the BWF releases fresh survey data around Fire Door Safety Week each September, so this page is updated as new data is released.
What percentage of fire doors fail inspection?
72% of fire doors inspected in 2025 failed to meet the required standard, according to the latest Fire Door Inspection Scheme findings, reported by the International Fire & Safety Journal in March 2026. FDIS inspectors are independently certificated, and their aggregated results are the closest thing the UK has to a national fire door failure rate.
The 2025 figure continues a slow improvement. In 2019, 76% of inspected fire doors failed; in 2021 the figure was 75%, based on a dataset of more than 100,000 individual inspections by FDIS-approved inspectors. The direction of travel is right, but after six years of post-Grenfell scrutiny the headline is essentially unchanged: roughly three in four fire doors inspected in the UK are not in a condition to hold back fire and smoke as intended.
| Year | Fire doors failing inspection | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 76% | FDIS inspection findings |
| 2021 | 75% | Based on 100,000+ inspections by FDIS-approved inspectors |
| 2025 | 72% | 70% of failed doors needed only minor remedial work |
There’s an important nuance in the 2025 data: 70% of the doors that failed needed only minor remedial works to bring them up to standard — things like closer adjustments, seal replacements and gap corrections rather than a full door replacement. A “failed” fire door is very often a fixable fire door, and usually a cheaply fixable one. The problem is less that the UK’s fire doors are beyond saving and more that nobody is checking and fixing them routinely.
What causes fire doors to fail inspection?
Excessive gaps between the door and its frame were found in 77% of faulty fire doors in the 2021 FDIS dataset — by far the most common defect. A fire door works as a complete sealed assembly, and once the perimeter gaps grow beyond tolerance, smoke and hot gases pass straight through regardless of how well the door leaf itself performs.
| Defect | Share of failed doors | Data period |
|---|---|---|
| Excessive gaps between door and frame | 77% | 2021 (FDIS) |
| Care and maintenance issues | 54% | 2021 (FDIS) |
| Smoke sealing issues | 37% | 2021 (FDIS) |
| Incorrect installation | 31% | 2021 (FDIS) |
The percentages add up to more than 100 because a failed door frequently had more than one defect. Care and maintenance issues affected 54% of failed doors in 2021 — a category that covers damaged or disconnected self-closers, broken hinges, missing or painted-over intumescent strips and general wear that nobody has logged or repaired. Smoke sealing issues were found on 37% of failed doors, and 31% had been incorrectly installed in the first place — doors that never provided the protection stamped on their certification label from day one.
For anyone responsible for a building, the pattern in this data is actually encouraging: the dominant defects are visible ones. Gaps, wedges, damaged seals and slack closers can all be picked up on a routine walk-round by a trained eye — which is exactly why fire door checks sit at the core of the fire warden role.
How many fire doors are installed in the UK each year?
Approximately 3 million new fire doors are bought and installed in the UK every year, the majority of them timber, according to the British Woodworking Federation’s Fire Door Alliance. Fire doors are not a niche product — they are a mass-market building component fitted in every block of flats, office, school, hospital and care home in the country.
Set that volume against the inspection data and the scale of the problem comes into focus. With 31% of failed doors incorrectly installed (2021 FDIS data), fire door safety in the UK is not just a legacy-stock issue — a meaningful share of brand-new doors are being compromised at the point of installation. A certified door set fitted with the wrong gaps, the wrong fixings or missing seals is a fire door in name only.
How common are wedged or propped-open fire doors?
39% of tenants say they have seen fire doors wedged or propped open in residential buildings, according to BWF Fire Door Safety Week survey data, and 41% of office workers have seen their office fire door wedged open, per CE Safety’s 2024 investigation of UK office workers. A wedged-open fire door offers no protection at all — in a fire it behaves like an open doorway, funnelling smoke into the escape route it was fitted to protect.
The awareness picture underneath those numbers is worse. In the BWF’s 2022 public survey, around a third of the British public said they would not report a problem with a fire door, and nearly a third did not know what a fire door is. Most propped-open doors aren’t malice — they’re convenience plus ignorance of what the door is for.
That awareness gap is why the BWF runs Fire Door Safety Week every September — the 2025 campaign theme was “Recognise it, Report it”. For fire wardens, the propped-open door is the single most common everyday finding, and the cheapest fix in fire safety: remove the wedge, close the door, and have a quiet word.
What did fire door testing find after Grenfell?
A flat-entrance fire door recovered from Grenfell Tower failed a 30-minute fire-resistance test after approximately 15 minutes. The door, manufactured by Manse Masterdor, was designed to resist fire for 30 minutes; achieving half that in test conditions triggered a government investigation into the wider fire door market in 2018.
The investigation found the problem extended well beyond one manufacturer. In 2018, the government announced that glazed and unglazed composite fire doors from five suppliers had failed fire-resistance tests, and the affected doors were withdrawn from sale — the official record is on GOV.UK under “Action to address recent fire door issues”.
Timber doors told a different story. In the government’s 2018–19 testing programme, all 25 timber fire door designs tested passed the 30-minute test from both sides. The failures were concentrated in GRP composite door sets, and the episode reshaped the regulatory landscape: it fed directly into the Building Safety Act 2022 and the fire door check duties introduced by the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
What are the legal requirements for checking fire doors?
Since 23 January 2023, responsible persons in English residential buildings over 11 metres tall must check communal fire doors at least every three months, and use best endeavours to check flat entrance doors at least every 12 months, under Regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. The Home Office publishes fire door guidance setting out what those checks should cover. In all buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises, responsible persons must also provide residents with information on the importance of fire doors to fire safety.
In workplaces, the duty comes from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005: fire doors are part of the premises’ fire safety measures and must be kept in efficient working order and good repair. The check frequency is set by the fire risk assessment, and in practice the routine looking is usually delegated to trained fire wardens or fire marshals as part of their regular walk-round.
Regulation is visibly pulling inspection volumes up. FDIS inspectors reported a 77% increase in demand for fire door inspections following the Building Safety Act 2022, and 59% reported rising demand for professional inspections in 2025. The inspection failure rate falling from 76% to 72% between 2019 and 2025 suggests the extra scrutiny is slowly working — but with roughly three in four doors still failing, the job is nowhere near done.
Frequently asked questions
How many fire doors fail inspection in the UK?
72% of fire doors inspected in 2025 failed to meet the required standard, according to FDIS data. In 2021 the failure rate was 75%, based on more than 100,000 inspections, and in 2019 it was 76%.
What is the most common fire door defect?
Excessive gaps between the door and its frame — found in 77% of faulty fire doors in the 2021 FDIS dataset. Care and maintenance issues (54%) and smoke sealing issues (37%) were the next most common.
How often should fire doors be inspected?
In English residential buildings over 11 metres, communal fire doors must be checked at least quarterly and flat entrance doors at least annually (on a best-endeavours basis) under Regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. In workplaces, the frequency is set by the fire risk assessment — routine fire door checks are commonly part of a fire warden’s weekly duties.
Do failed fire doors need to be replaced?
Usually not. In the 2025 FDIS data, 70% of the doors that failed inspection needed only minor remedial works — adjusting closers, replacing seals or correcting gaps — rather than a new door.
What is the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS)?
FDIS is a certification scheme for fire door inspectors. Its inspectors’ aggregated findings — published periodically since 2019 — are the main public source of UK fire door failure statistics, including the 76% (2019), 75% (2021) and 72% (2025) failure rates cited on this page.
When is Fire Door Safety Week?
Every September. It’s an annual awareness campaign run by the British Woodworking Federation — the 2025 theme was “Recognise it, Report it” — and each year’s campaign typically brings new survey data on fire door awareness and misuse.
Checking fire doors — closed, undamaged, never wedged — is one of the highest-value routine duties a fire warden performs, and the statistics above show exactly why it matters. Our Fire Warden Training course covers fire door checks alongside the full warden role. £18 per learner, RoSPA approved and CPD accredited, 60 to 90 minutes online from any device, and an instant certificate on passing. Free unlimited retakes if you don’t pass first time, and bulk discounts from 10 delegates upwards.
Related guides
- Fire Evacuation Statistics UK: Rescues, Drills & Evacuation Behaviour Data
- High-Rise Fire Statistics UK: Fires in Tall Buildings & Cladding Remediation Data
- Fire marshal checklist: daily, weekly and emergency procedure
- Fire marshal responsibilities: the complete UK duties list
- How many fire marshals do you need?
Sources & references
- International Fire & Safety Journal — FDIS 2025 fire door inspection findings (March 2026)
- FireRiskAssessments.com — Three quarters of fire doors fail inspections, according to FDIS (2021 survey coverage)
- British Woodworking Federation — Fire Door Safety Week
- MHCLG — Action to address recent fire door issues (GOV.UK, 2018)
- MHCLG — Fire door testing programme: GRP composite fire doors report (GOV.UK)
- Home Office — Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: fire door guidance (GOV.UK)
- CE Safety — UK office fire door investigation (2024)
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Mark writes about workplace health & safety, fire safety and accredited online training for Fire Warden Training, part of Online CPD Academy.