PartB & The FPA Form Strategic Partnership

The Fire Protection Association has become part of the Certek Group – creating a strategic collaboration between PartB and the FPA.

This exciting news enables two of the UK’s most respected fire safety organisations to work alongside one another, paving the way for a comprehensive, market leading, end-to-end fire safety ecosystem.

This alignment represents a landmark for the sector, combining PartB’s specialist fire engineering expertise with the FPA’s long-standing leadership in research, testing, training and certification. It enables two uniquely positioned organisations to collaborate and deliver fully integrated fire safety solutions across the lifecycle of the built environment.

Announcing the news, PartB’s Group Chief Technical Officer, Jamie Davis said: ‘This is a significant milestone in our mission to improve fire safety outcomes and create a more robust, accountable, and technically excellent system across the built environment. PartB has built a reputation on engineering excellence, technical rigour and a willingness to challenge conventional thinking. The FPA has spent decades leading the industry through research, testing, training, and publication of guidance. Its got a very strong heritage. Together, our strengths complement one another perfectly. By working alongside the FPA, we can help drive higher standards, improve competence across the sector and ultimately have greater impact on public safety than either of us could on our own. It’s a very exciting time’.

The FPA’s CEO, Dr Gavin Dunn described the news as a ‘transformational moment’ for the FPA. He added: ‘It provides the investment and scale to accelerate innovation, expand our services, and strengthen our role as the UK's leading fire safety organisation. Working alongside PartB will create much closer collaboration across our businesses, which will ultimately lead to a more comprehensive fire testing operation and significantly strengthened laboratory capabilities. Most importantly, we will continue delivering independent expertise, research, and professional development that supports a safer built environment for generations to come’.

News of the strategic collaboration is a significant move forward in challenging and changing the industry and raising the standards of fire safety in the built environment - strengthening industry practice and delivering measurable public safety outcomes.

Jamie Davis added: ‘We’re building something that has the potential to transform the fire safety landscape. We’ll do it carefully, thoughtfully and with a clear focus on maintaining the values, integrity and technical excellence that have made both organisations successful’.

In recent years, PartB and the FPA have worked closely together through their joint fire-resistance testing activities. Looking to the future, the FPA and PartB will now build on their existing success and work even more collaboratively, leading to a more comprehensive fire testing operation, alongside significantly strengthened laboratory capabilities.

Looking to the industry’s future, Dr Gavin Dunn added: ‘We have secured our future and protected everything that makes this organisation special by maintaining the independence, integrity, and public benefit role that has always defined the FPA’.

Jamie Davis also reflected: ‘This collaboration puts us in a unique position to deliver what others cannot. With PartB’s dynamic, forward-thinking and modern engineering approach and the FPA’s 75 years’ heritage as a trusted fire safety leader, we are in a strong position to affect real change. This is the start of a very exciting journey’.