National Security Inspectorate Sentinel House, 5 Reform Road, Maidenhead, SL6 8BY E: nsi@nsi.org.uk | W: nsi.org.uk Page 1 of 3 © NSI 2024 Date: 6th November 2024 To: NSI NACOSS Gold, Fire Gold, Evacuation Alert Systems Gold, Kitchen Fire Protection Systems Gold, Systems Silver, Fire Silver, Evacuation Alert Systems Silver, and Kitchen Fire Protection Systems Silver approved companies and applicants TECHNICAL BULLETIN No: 0068 Information concerning the level of performance in relation to the carrying out of routine (preventive) and corrective maintenance visits (Supersedes Technical Bulletin 0046) This Technical Bulletin gives information concerning the level of performance required of NSI NACOSS Gold, Fire Gold, Evacuation Alert Systems Gold, Kitchen Fire Protection Systems Gold, Systems Silver, Fire Silver, Evacuation Alert Systems Silver, and Kitchen Fire Protection Systems Silver approved companies in relation to the carrying out of routine (preventive) and Corrective maintenance visits. Some of the information given in this Technical Bulletin was originally contained in Technical Bulletin 0046 which is now withdrawn. In this document, information that does not form a mandatory requirement is shown in italics Routine maintenance 1. The “due date” for the first preventive maintenance visit must be the 6th or 12th calendar month after the month during which the system comes into use. By concession, NSI allows a plus or minus one-month window for the preventive maintenance visit to be completed. Therefore, for NSI purposes, a visit carried out during the calendar month immediately prior to the due month or during the calendar month immediately after the due month is regarded as having been completed on time. However, it is the actual “due month” which is to be used as the baseline for scheduling subsequent visits. It is not acceptable to use a late visit (i.e. a visit carried out after the “due month”) as the baseline for scheduling subsequent visits. Technical Bulletin No: 0068 Page 2 of 3 © NSI 2024 It is permissible for an approved company to change the “due month” to an earlier date than it would naturally be and then use the earlier “due month” as the baseline for scheduling future visits provided: a) the customer agrees this in writing; or b) the customer does not object and does not in any way suffer financially as a result of this change. (This can assist an approved company in smoothing out peaks and troughs within its annual contractual commitment). 2. The approved company must have a procedure in place to facilitate adequate follow-up action is taken in cases where there is no access to the premises in order to carry out the preventive maintenance work. 3. During the routine surveillance audits, NSI will evaluate an approved company’s preventive maintenance achievement against their contractual preventive maintenance commitment. 4. If an approved company has documentary evidence on file to demonstrate that at least TWO attempts have been made to arrange access to the premises but without success, then provided at least ONE of the attempts was by written communication from the approved company to the customer, the approved company may, after a reasonable period of time has elapsed following the last attempt, for the purposes of calculating its preventive achievement treat the visit as “deemed to have been made”. The allowance that an approved company may treat certain due visits that have been completed as “deemed to have been made” is solely for the firm’s own internal purposes and the purposes of NSI’s appraisal of the approved company’s preventive maintenance achievement. It is important that approved companies appreciate their contractual obligations to their customers are an entirely separate matter, dependent upon the details of the specific contract, and the particular circumstances of each individual case. Providing adequate resources are in place and a no-access procedure is followed the approved company should be able to demonstrate that 100% of the preventive maintenance visits have been made or are “deemed to have been made”. 5. Where an approved company’s monthly preventive maintenance achievement repeatedly falls below 90%, this will normally be reported by NSI as a Minor non-compliance. A repetitive achievement below 80% is likely to give rise to a Major non-compliance. Before making a final judgement regarding the grading of the non-compliance, NSI will consider any ongoing or planned corrective action documented by the approved company if this information is made available to us. Technical Bulletin No: 0068 Page 3 of 3 © NSI 2024 6. Any outstanding “overdue visits” (i.e. visits which have not been made within the three-month window referred to in Section 1 above, or “deemed to have been made”) must be treated as a priority. Corrective maintenance We expect approved companies to respond to 100% of corrective maintenance calls within the response time required by the relevant technical standard or as per the contracted Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the client. Where a response is not achieved within the required timeframe, approved companies must keep a log of these “failed response time” calls and investigate why the call(s) was/were not responded to within the required timeframe. The log and results of investigations must be made available to NSI during audits when requested. Where an approved company’s monthly corrective maintenance achievement repeatedly falls below 90%, this will normally be reported by NSI as a Minor non-compliance. A repetitive achievement below 80% is likely to give rise to a Major non-compliance. Before making a final judgement regarding the grading of the non-compliance, NSI will consider any ongoing or planned corrective action documented by the approved company if this information is made available to us.