Judges are nominated by supporting organisations working with the sector and then independently reviewed by the FREAs team. The judge’s mark all entries against the criteria set out in the category requirements (viewable on the ‘Enter’ pages) and the highest scoring entry following the judging will be the winner. Entries are assigned to judges randomly, however, they are reviewed prior to distribution and not assigned to judges where there may be a conflict of interest or any association between entrant and judge. In case something still makes it past the review, judges are required to state any conflict of interest(s) on every single marksheet. All judges follow a strict code of conduct, which can be found below. The judges’ shortlist is announced prior to the awards event, however the winner of each category will remain a secret until the awards ceremony.

The FREAs represents best practice in the fire and reselience sector and as such we are committed to recruiting the best possible panel to review the entries and decide upon category winners. As such, the criteria for the judging panel have been set out. The panel must include individuals:
• With experience, knowledge, and business expertise in different areas of tackling fires and resilience to fires.
• Who are familiar with best practices
• Who have undertaken different roles in different aspects of the sector
• Who adhere to the Judges’ Code of Ethics

The Judges’ Code of Ethics are set out to define the standards required of a judge. This is in order to maintain the core values of integrity and impartiality. There is an obligation on all parties to observe the highest standards of integrity and all judges and officials who act on behalf of the FREAs must accept the importance of establishing and maintaining appropriate ethical behaviour. By becoming a judge that person has agreed to the Code of Ethics.

Judicial Independence – Judges must uphold and exemplify independence. Their decisions must not be based on extraneous influences, and they must reject any attempt to influence their decisions.

Integrity – Judges are an integral part of the FREAs and therefore must conduct themselves with integrity to ensure they are above reproach in their own business in the view of fair minded, informed people.

Diligence – Judges must commit to providing time to ensure that all entries they receive are judged fairly and are considered equally.

Equality – Judges should carry out their review without discrimination.
Impartiality – Judges should aim to remain impartial in the judging process, and review entries purely based on the quality of the evidence provided to them.
If you have any concerns regarding one of our judges, then please contact us.

The ‘Entrants’ Code of Ethics’ is set out to define the standards required of a participant. This is to maintain the values of integrity and impartiality within the awards scheme. Before submitting an entry to the awards, the conditions of entry must be read and accepted.

Conditions of entry

• Entrants must be operating in the UK to enter the FREAs
• Entries must be submitted through the official form on the website
• Entrants must complete the entry form to the best of their ability and must use accurate and honest information. If any information is found to be inaccurate the entrant will be disqualified.
• No alterations may be made to nominations which have been submitted
• A company or individual can enter more than one award category, providing all the requirements are met. The evidence presented in each award category needs to show outstanding performance in that category.
• Any attempt to gain unfair advantage at any point during the process will result in immediate disqualification.
• The FREAs’ judging panel is responsible for awarding the winners of each category. Their judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The decision of the judges must be respected and, by entering the FREAs, entrants accept this condition.
• We do not anonymise the entries. Our experience with other schemes has led us to let the judges see the entry in full so that they can help ensure that no award is given to anyone disreputable. That stated, please be assured that judges will mark the entry based only on the information that has been provided. By limiting the entry to text-based answers the FREAs aim to create a level playing field where small and large companies can compete fairly. Moreover, being required to think about the factors that signify excellence, and to focus on the information most relevant to the judges can be helpful; it is quality not quantity that we value.
• All entries to the FREAs must be received before the deadline. Entries received after this time may be disqualified.

• Entrants accept that by entering the FREAs their entry is subject to scrutiny by our team and the judging panel.
• Entrants must be prepared to submit additional evidence or provide reasonable support for any relevant points raised or answers to any queries that may arise.
• All entrants must accept that all those who are finalists for an award will be published and relevant details may be used in pre-event and post-event publications to recognise the awards.
• All those who are finalists are expected to send a representative to the awards ceremony that can collect the Award if they are a winner.
• The FREAs reserves the right to use all or part of the material entered in the competition for promotion of the awards. Under no circumstances shall the organisers be held responsible for the payment of royalties or other charges for the use of materials provided in support of the awards.
• All entries become the Property of the FREAs on submission. No entries will be changed or returned.
• Entrants accept that our team reserves the right to not award a category if circumstances deem that necessary.