Fire roll call system FAQs
What responsible persons and safety managers ask before choosing a system. If yours is not here, call the Leeds team on 0113 350 9043.
Is a digital fire roll call system legally acceptable in the UK?▼
Yes. The
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 does not specify how you account for people, only that your evacuation procedures must be effective and that you must be able to show them. Nothing requires a paper list. What matters is that your fire risk assessment sets out the method, that your marshals are trained in it, and that you can produce evidence afterwards. A digital system usually makes the last part easier, because the record is created automatically rather than depending on someone filing a sheet.
What happens if there is no phone signal at the assembly point?▼
The roll call runs offline. The app holds the list on the device and syncs when connectivity returns, so a poor reception spot in a car park or behind a building does not stop the count. It is still worth standing at your assembly point and testing whatever system you are considering before you rely on it.
What if someone leaves site without clocking out?▼
They will show as unaccounted for, and that is the correct behaviour: the system should err towards someone being in the building rather than assuming they left. The difference a digital system makes is what happens next. Instead of sending a marshal back inside to look, you call or message that person from the app and rule them out in seconds. No roll call system, digital or paper, can know about someone who slipped out of a side door, so the honest answer is that the process handles it rather than the technology preventing it.
Does it include visitors and contractors?▼
Yes, if they signed in through
visitor management. They appear on the same roll call list as staff, which matters because visitors and contractors are the people least likely to know where the assembly point is and most likely to be missed off a printed staff list. If you take visitors and do not have a sign-in system, that is the gap worth closing first.
How much does a fire roll call system cost?▼
£395 a year excl. VAT, flat, whatever your headcount. A site with 500 people pays the same as a site with 40. It is an add-on to
Syncro Connect or
Realtime, because the roll call is built from your clocking data, so you need one of those in place for it to work.
Can more than one fire marshal run the roll call at the same time?▼
Yes, and on a larger site you should. Several marshals can work through the list at once from their own devices, so a 300 person roll call is not queueing behind one person with one phone. It also means the count continues if the person who normally does it is away, off site, or the one who is unaccounted for.
Do we still need to run fire drills?▼
Yes. Most workplaces should run at least one a year, and your fire risk assessment may call for more depending on the premises and the people in them. A digital system does not replace drills, it makes them worth more: each one is logged with the time taken and an accuracy percentage, so you can see whether things are improving and spot the practical problems, like a marshal whose phone was in a locker, while it is still only a drill.
How is roll call data handled under UK GDPR?▼
A roll call list is personal data, since it shows who was on site and when, but it is ordinary personal data rather than special category, unlike sickness records. Most employers rely on legal obligation or legitimate interests as the lawful basis, given the duty to account for people in an emergency. Records are held in UK data centres with access logged and restricted to named users, and you set your own retention period. Our
data security page sets out how it is stored.
Where should the roll call be taken?▼
At your assembly point, which should be a safe distance from the building, upwind where possible, and clear of traffic and the routes the fire service will use. There is no fixed legal distance; it is set by your fire risk assessment. Each assembly point gets its own list in the app, which matters on sites where different zones muster in different places. We cover this in more detail in
where should fire roll call be carried out.
How long does it take to set up?▼
If you already have Syncro Connect or Realtime, the roll call module is switched on and configured around your assembly points and marshals, which is a matter of days rather than weeks. Most of the setup is deciding who your marshals are and which zones muster where, which is work your fire risk assessment has usually done already.
Can we try it before committing?▼
Yes. Start a
free trial of Syncro Connect with no card required, or
book a demo and we will show the roll call running against a list like yours. If you are replacing an existing system, tell us what it does now and we will be straight with you about whether this is an improvement.
