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The document

The certificate your auditor signs.
Generated on the day it's due.

BS 5266-1 doesn't care how the testing got done — it cares that the paperwork exists, is honest, and is signed. We produce that paperwork from the test data the sensor nodes already report. Per-fitting rollup, individual test log, signature block, ready for A4.

  • BS 5266-1 2016 + A1:2021
  • BS EN 1838 2013
  • BS EN 50172 2004
  • ICEL 1006 2014

The duty

What the standards actually ask of you.

The duty-holder of every non-domestic UK premises must, by law, test the emergency lighting on a monthly cadence (short functional) and once a year (full discharge), record the result of each test, and produce a certificate. The standards are explicit about what the record must contain.

Skip the test or lose the log, and your insurance, your fire risk assessment, and your Building Safety Act compliance all turn into a problem the morning after an incident.

§12.2.1
Monthly functional test
A short-duration switch to battery on every fitting. Verify each one illuminates. Record date + result.
§12.2.2
Annual full discharge
Full rated duration on battery (typically 3 hours). Verify lux output stays above the minimum. Record reading + duration.
§13
Logbook
Per-fitting test record kept on site, signed by a competent person, retained for the life of the system.
§13.4
Annual certificate
A formal certificate of testing, dated and signed, available for the duty-holder and the enforcing authority.

How Fireline does it

The paperwork writes itself.

Sensor nodes inside the fittings run the monthly + annual tests at 03:00 — when the building is quiet — and report the result to the base hub. The portal stores every measurement and renders the certificate on demand. You open the portal, pick a date range, hit print, sign it.

  1. 1 The node cuts mains for ~6 s on the monthly test, ~3 h on the annual. The integrated lux sensor reads the actual light output produced on battery.
  2. 2 The result (lux baseline, lux minimum, duration, pass/fail) is stored on the portal — per fitting, time-ordered, immutable.
  3. 3 A failure (lux below threshold, no response, battery weak) raises an alert. You see it in the portal before you would have noticed manually.
  4. 4 The certificate is generated on demand — pick a date range, hit print. A4 PDF with the signature block, ready to be signed by a competent person.
Preview a sample certificate
Fireline Supplies
Compliance certificate · BS 5266-1
Issued 2026-04-14
cert-ref 26TR-2026-04
Building
26 Trinity, Wandsworth
SW18 4DT
Period
2025-04 → 2026-04
156 tests · 154 pass · 2 fail
FittingTestsStatus
Reception · W13PASS
Reception · E13PASS
Fire exit · S13ACTION
Office · core13PASS
Stair · N13PASS
Inspected by
Alex Ward · Senior Technician
Date
DD / MM / YYYY

Common questions

From the auditors and the assessors.

Does an automated test actually count as a BS 5266 test?
Yes. BS 5266-1 §12 describes what must happen during a functional / annual test (mains is cut, the fitting illuminates from battery, lux is verified) — it does not mandate that a human be standing under each fitting with a clipboard while it happens. Automated test sequences with auditable measurement records satisfy the standard; the BSI explicitly endorses this in the 2021 amendment.
Who counts as a competent person for the certificate signature?
An LIA / FIA-registered technician, or a chartered building services engineer, or any person trained to BS 5266-1 §13.4 and able to demonstrate that competence. The signature block on Fireline's certificate carries the technician's registration ref so the assessor can verify it.
What if a fitting fails its test?
The portal raises an alert immediately — the responsible operator sees it as a red status on the dashboard within seconds. The certificate records the failure on the per-fitting rollup with an "Action" stamp; you remediate (replace battery, replace lamp, replace fitting), the next test passes, the audit trail is intact.
How long is the data retained?
Seven years on the active tier, indefinitely on cold storage. BS 5266-1 §13.5 requires the log to be available for the life of the installation; we err on the side of "forever".
Can the certificate be tampered with?
No. The test events are signed by the base hub on emission and stored append-only on the portal. The certificate's cert-ref number resolves to a hash of every test row it represents — any edit would change the hash and the auditor would see the mismatch.

Need a one-page brief for your fire-risk assessor?

Email us — we'll send a PDF summarising Fireline's BS 5266 evidence pack.

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