Stronger testing for safer buildings: SOCOTEC integrates UKTC fire testing to close compliance gaps
Iain Hoey
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Following the recent acquisition of UKTC, SOCOTEC UK CEO Matthew Marriott discusses the integration of testing and engineering expertise across the building lifecycle
Can you introduce yourself and your role at SOCOTEC and what the company does in the fire and safety sector?
I originally qualified as a mechanical engineer and spent 12 years in high volume manufacture predominantly for the automotive industry – which gave me a great background in process engineering and driving continuous improvement.
From there, I spent 15 years in the elevator business starting in construction and service roles within the UK, before heading up field operations globally operating in over 150 countries.
More recently, my career has taken me to the Fire and Security sectors.
My passion is to ensure we can robustly deliver and exceed our customer requirements, while continuing to grow our team of over 2000 experts, setting the standard in all markets we operate within.
As CEO at SOCOTEC UK and Ireland, my main objective is to lead this fantastic business in the next stage of its journey, with a key focus on growing our market share organically through delivering exception service to our customer.
To do this, we look to continually make operational improvements, which, in turn, allows us to spend more time on meeting the requirements of our customers.
We also strive to make SOCOTEC the best possible employer to work for – something we were officially certified for in 2025, through the Great Place To Work® benchmark, as a result of our employee feedback.
Specific achievements we were particularly proud of, was being recognised as one of The Sunday Times Top 100 Employers for our Apprenticeship Programme, as well as ranking on the Financial Times’ FT-Statista 2026 Diversity Leaders list, which saw us recognised for our diversity and inclusion practices.
Additionally, we are focusing on a series of finer strategic acquisitions that will enable us to provide our customers with a more comprehensive offering, that will ultimately enable us to support them in managing their building or infrastructure asset through its lifecycle, working with them at every stage to ensure compliance is met, as well as maximising the performance and future potential.
The breadth of service we offer in relation to fire engineering and fire safety is really quite unique.
We provide complete range of services that can impact an asset at any part of its life cycle.
Whether at the early stages of a building or infrastructure project, through to the ongoing operations of the asset, and upgrades/refurbishments we cover fire and façade design and engineering, fire strategies, fire risk assessment, passive fire protection compliance, expert witness, building control compliance and consultancy, there is something for every single point of the asset’s lifecycle.
Now, in addition to the above, we can provide our customers with not only desktop and engineering advice related to the performance but also product testing for resistance to fire, reaction to fire and smoke leakage.
And ultimately gives compliance to our unique certification process.
What made UKTC the right fit for SOCOTEC and where did its strengths stand out?
Over the last couple of years, we have significantly grown our fire engineering capability.
As part of this, we are often asked if we can provide physical testing of products – which traditionally we have had to outsource.
Fast-forward to the present day, and our acquisition of UKTC now enables us to provide this service in-house giving us an incredibly unique service offering.
We had previously considered developing this ourselves, however, when we met the UKTC team, we saw their passion for the business, their desire to grow while continuing to deliver an exceptional service to their customer and knew this would be a great fit with SOCOTEC.
What new capabilities does UKTC bring to SOCOTEC’s existing fire safety offering?
The key capabilities UKTC adds to our existing offering is the physical testing of products that previously we would only have been able to do either through a third party or through a desktop engineering exercise.
In November, UKTC broke ground on a multi-million pound expansion set to create around 20 new jobs, which is incredibly exciting for us.
The team in East Kilbride is vastly knowledgeable and talented, so expanding the facilities to meet the increased demand for fire testing services at the site was the logical next step forward to help the continued growth of UKTC, and provide the best service possible to its customers across the UK and Europe.
The planned extension will be completed in 2026, and will house a new full-scale fire resistance test furnace.
How does UKTC’s laboratory testing link to day-to-day building safety compliance?
A real-world example for instance would be fire doors, that are a critical part of ensuring people’s safety in a building.
UKTC is able to test these doors in real-life surroundings and configurations, such as glazed panels to ensure they meet the required standard and will work as they should if there was to be a fire.
We are all aware of the attention that has been given to the performance of different materials during fire and how these materials can perform differently when combined with others.
The ability of our fire labs to do real world testing of these materials, allows us to confirm if they will meet the required standard and ultimately help to keep people safe.
How will clients benefit from the combined knowledge and services of both divisions?
The Fire Engineering team is actively engaged in several research studies with universities, leveraging their practical expertise to support and sponsor work mainly focused on machine learning applications in CFD and the fire behaviour of façade systems.
These initiatives aim to enhance industry knowledge and promote the development of science-based design approaches.
Access to the UKTC testing facilities will further strengthen these collaborations by supporting both ongoing and future research.
It also presents opportunities for the External Wall Fire Engineering team to develop bespoke testing solutions for complex projects, enabling more robust assessment and mitigation of rapid fire spread risks over external walls.
What does lifecycle fire testing look like in practice for different types of buildings?
Across the building lifecycle refers to initial design right through to remediation or refurbishment to extend the life of the asset and everything in between.
Pre-build, we will test doors and partitions to ensure they meet the requirements of a new build.
At the other end of the cycle, we can test how new products, attached to old will react in a fire.
We deal with many historical buildings.
particularly through our Building Pathology division, the stakeholders of these buildings don’t want to be replacing all their doors for a modern equivalent.
Through sample testing, we are able to give confidence that the existing doors will act as required in the case of a fire.
What are the key findings from UKTC’s recent whitepaper on issues within the construction sector?
UKTC carried out a comprehensive survey of fire safety professionals which revealed significant shortcomings in current third-party certification schemes, with 60% of respondents reporting issues with their existing providers and 82% demanding greater transparency in certification processes.
The release of this whitepaper highlights several concerning shortcomings in the third-party certification market at present.
There’s a clear requirement for radical change, and we look forward to seeing UKTC ensure® have a real positive change on the sector.
How is SOCOTEC preparing to support clients in meeting newer, stricter fire safety regulations?
SOCOTEC’s Fire Engineering team is proactively investing in technical excellence to support clients in meeting the evolution of more stringent fire safety regulations.
To achieve this, our team have continuous professional development (CPD) embedded into staff performance targets and supported through mandatory weekly sessions.
These focus on, but are not limited to, technical updates, emerging fire engineering topics and lessons learned workshops.
To help stay in the know we maintain corporate membership with the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), with all engineers registered at appropriate grades.
Our engineers are also actively involved in several key industry committees, including the IFE London Branch, SFPE UK, NFPA 101A, ISO/TC92/SC4, and BSI FSH/24, which allows us to contribute to the advancement of fire safety standards.
A robust technical workflow is in place, requiring all deliverables to undergo independent technical review by a Senior Fire Engineer not involved in the original design.
For complex projects or cases of differing technical opinion, matters are escalated to a dedicated Technical Committee for resolution and peer review.
Alongside this, in response to new duty holder responsibilities under the Building Safety Act, the team has expanded its capability by appointing a Fire Systems Specialist and a Fire Testing Consultant.
These roles specifically support Principal Designers and Contractors in reviewing fire-related design submissions that may impact the overall fire strategy.
Looking ahead, do you see SOCOTEC making further investments in fire testing and building compliance?
This is absolutely a key area for us to continue investing in the right strategic acquisitions and organic growth.
We are always on the lookout for great individuals that want to join a rapidly growing team of experts, who are not only working on exciting projects in the built environment but are also working on some very interesting research projects to keep us at the forefront of fire practice, which ultimately allows us to provide forward-thinking fire guidance to our customers.