PAS 9980, FRAEW and EWS1 are three of the most misused terms in building safety, and confusing them can cost building owners months. This guide sets out what each one means, how the risk ratings work, and what actually happens once an assessment says remediation is needed.
PAS 9980:2022 is a publicly available specification published by the British Standards Institution (BSI). Its full title is 'Fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding of existing blocks of flats — Code of practice'. It gives fire engineers a consistent, proportionate methodology for judging the fire risk posed by a building's external walls — cladding panels, insulation, cavity barriers, balconies and attachments — rather than treating any combustible material as an automatic fail.
PAS 9980 was developed to replace the blanket, worst-case approach that followed the Grenfell Tower fire, when many buildings were flagged for full recladding without a considered appraisal. The methodology weighs the wall build-up as a whole: what the materials are, how they are configured, how the building is used, and what protective measures are in place. The output is a risk-based judgement, not a simple pass or fail.
A PAS 9980 appraisal is a specialist fire engineering exercise. It is carried out by a competent fire engineer or fire risk assessor with external-wall expertise — not by a contractor, and not by a valuer.
FRAEW stands for Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls. It is the assessment itself — the investigation and report a fire engineer produces when appraising a building's external wall construction. PAS 9980 is the code of practice that sets out how a FRAEW should be done, so in practice the two terms travel together: a 'PAS 9980 FRAEW' is a fire risk appraisal of external walls carried out to the PAS 9980 methodology.
A FRAEW typically involves reviewing design and construction records, intrusive or non-intrusive inspection of the wall build-up to confirm what is actually there, and an engineering judgement on how the walls would behave in a fire. The report concludes with a risk rating for the external walls and, where risk is unacceptable, recommendations — which may range from managing the risk through interim measures to partial or full remediation of the wall system.
The FRAEW report is the document that drives everything downstream: it defines what needs to change on the building, and it is the evidence base that funders, regulators and lenders expect to see.
An EWS1 form (External Wall System form) is a valuation tool created by RICS for mortgage lending. It is a one-page summary that tells a lender whether the external walls of a residential building are likely to support the value of a flat, or whether remediation costs are likely. It is not a fire safety assessment in its own right, it is not a legal requirement, and it does not tell a building owner what work to do.
A FRAEW is the underlying technical assessment. Where an EWS1 is needed, it should be underpinned by a FRAEW: the fire engineer carries out the appraisal to PAS 9980, then uses those findings to complete the EWS1 rating. Put simply, the FRAEW is the engineering; the EWS1 is a lending summary of it.
The distinction matters for building owners. If your goal is to understand and fix a building, you need a FRAEW. If a leaseholder's lender is asking for evidence to support a mortgage, that is when an EWS1 comes into play — and it should follow from the FRAEW, not replace it.
A PAS 9980 appraisal concludes with a risk rating for the external walls, typically expressed as low, medium or high risk to life from fire spread over or within the external wall construction. The rating reflects the wall build-up as a whole in the context of the specific building — the same cladding product can sit at different risk levels on different buildings depending on height, extent, cavity barriers, escape strategy and occupancy.
A low rating generally means the walls are tolerable as they stand and no remediation is required. A medium rating means risk may be tolerable with mitigation, or that targeted works are advisable — the engineer's recommendations carry the weight here. A high rating means the risk is not tolerable and remediation is needed, usually alongside interim measures to protect residents while works are arranged.
The rating and recommendations belong to the fire engineer. A contractor's job is to price and deliver the works those recommendations describe — not to second-guess the rating or reinterpret the appraisal.
Where a FRAEW concludes that remediation is required, the project moves from assessment into design and delivery. The engineer's recommendations are developed into a remediation scope: which cladding, insulation or attachments are removed and replaced, how cavity barriers and fire-stopping are reinstated, and what the replacement wall build-up will be. On higher-risk buildings this work falls under the Building Safety Act 2022 regime, with Building Safety Regulator approval required before work starts.
This is where the division of labour is clearest. The fire engineer assesses and specifies the outcome; the remediation contractor plans, sequences and delivers the physical works — access and protection, careful strip-out, substrate repair, new insulation and cladding systems, cavity barriers, and the workmanship records and evidence needed for the golden thread. AMPM works on the delivery side of that line: we carry out remediation to the outcome of a PAS 9980 appraisal, and we do not carry out FRAEWs or issue EWS1 forms.
Government has set out target dates for cladding remediation in England: under its Remediation Acceleration Plan, buildings of 18 metres and over in a government-funded scheme are expected to be remediated by the end of 2029, and buildings of 11 metres and over should be remediated, or have a completion date, by the end of 2031, with sanctions proposed for landlords who fail to act. Check gov.uk for the current position, as the detail continues to develop.
Fire engineer or competent assessor: carries out the FRAEW to PAS 9980, assigns the risk rating, recommends what must change, and where relevant completes the EWS1 form for lenders.
Building owner or responsible person: commissions the FRAEW, holds the report, acts on its recommendations, and manages duties under the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety Act 2021.
Remediation contractor: turns the engineer's recommendations into a buildable scope and delivers it — strip-out, fire-stopping, cavity barriers, new insulation and cladding — with the documentation to evidence the finished wall build-up. That is AMPM's role: fabric and envelope remediation delivered to an assessment's outcome, across London and the South East.
PAS 9980 itself is a code of practice, not legislation. However, the Fire Safety Act 2021 brought external walls within the scope of the fire risk assessment that responsible persons must carry out under the Fire Safety Order, and a PAS 9980 FRAEW is the recognised methodology for doing that where wall construction is in question. In practice, if there is doubt about a residential building's external walls, a FRAEW is the expected route.
Only if a lender asks for one. The EWS1 is a lending tool, not a safety document — it summarises the external wall position for mortgage valuation. If leaseholders in your building are buying, selling or remortgaging, their lenders may request an EWS1, and the assessor completing it should base it on the FRAEW findings. If no lender is involved, the FRAEW alone tells you everything you need for building safety purposes.
Best practice is to keep them separate. The FRAEW is an independent engineering judgement, and its credibility with regulators, funders and lenders depends on the assessor having no stake in the works that follow. AMPM deliberately sits on one side of that line: we deliver remediation to the outcome of a PAS 9980 appraisal carried out by an independent fire engineer, and we do not carry out assessments or issue EWS1 forms.