Some time ago I asked the Lead Cabinet Member for Housing in Brent a question about the Council's actions on the revised regulations post-Grenfell and was told that this would be done when the responsibilities were clarified. LINK
This is an update of those responsibilities that commence on January 23rd 2023 published by the Home Office earlier this month, You will see that a considerable amount of work is involved:
EXTRACT
If
you are a Responsible Person on whom duties are imposed under the Fire
Safety (England) Regulations (hereafter referred to as “the
Regulations”), find out what your responsibilities are under the
Regulations. The commencement date of the Regulations is
23 January 2023. The duties in these Regulations supplement those
imposed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (as amended).
From: Home Office
Applies to England only
This information is not exhaustive but is designed to provide you with a high-level summary.
Who is this guidance for?
This guidance is for people who have responsibilities under the Fire
Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (“the Regulations”). You will have
such responsibilities if, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety)
Order 2005 (“the Fire Safety Order”), you are a “Responsible Person” (or
a person who has some responsibilities) on whom the Fire Safety Order
imposes various duties in relation to fire safety in a residential
building, such as a block of flats or student accommodation.
Check your fire safety responsibilities under the Fire Safety Order - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Background to the Fire Safety (England) Regulations
In 2017, at Grenfell Tower, a high-rise block in West London, a
tragic fire resulted in the deaths of 72 residents, the most serious
loss of life in a single fire in the UK since World War 2. The
Government immediately ordered a Public Inquiry into the fire.
In October 2019, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry published the findings of
Phase 1 of the Inquiry. The findings included many important
recommendations to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.
The Government undertook, in principle, to introduce new regulations
that would bring the recommendations into force. These regulations take
the form of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and extend
duties imposed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
To which buildings do the Fire Safety (England) Regulations apply?
These Regulations apply to all buildings in England that comprise two
or more domestic premises (including the residential parts of mixed-use
buildings) although there are more requirements depending on the height
as explained in this guide. These buildings are, principally, blocks
of flats (whether purpose-built or converted from another type of
building, such as a house or office building), but also include blocks
used for student accommodation.
The Regulations apply regardless of whether the flats are subject to a
long (e.g. 99 years) lease or are rented, and regardless of whether the
flats are used to accommodate the general public or a particular group
of people (as in the case of, for example, sheltered housing for older
people).
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations impose duties on you if you are the Responsible Person for any building which:
- contains two or more sets of domestic premises
- contains common parts through which residents would need to evacuate in the case of an emergency
The Regulations apply to:
- parts of the building that are used in common by the residents of
two or more domestic premises (e.g. communal corridors and stairways)
- flat entrance doors
- the walls and floors that separate any domestic premises from
other domestic premises, plant rooms, etc, or from parts of the building
that are used in common by the occupants of two or more domestic
premises
- plant rooms and other non-domestic areas of the building, such as
tenant halls, offices, laundries, gymnasia and commercial premises
- external walls of the building, including doors or windows within
an external wall, and attachments to an external wall (e.g. balconies).
The Regulations do not apply within individual flats, other than in
respect of measures installed within flats for the safety of other
residents of the building (e.g. sprinklers, smoke detectors connected to
a communal fire alarm system, etc).
Enforcement of the Regulations is the responsibility of the same
enforcing authority as enforces the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety)
Order 2005. In the case of a block of flats, this is virtually always
the local fire and rescue authority.
Do the Regulations only apply to high-rise residential buildings?
The sections that follow begin with requirements that apply to all
residential buildings. There then follow requirements that apply only
to buildings of greater than 11m in height. Finally, the guidance sets
out requirements that apply only to high-rise residential buildings.
The section headings make it clear whether the section applies to all
residential buildings, only to buildings of greater than 11m in height,
or only to high-rise residential buildings.
Because Grenfell Tower was a high-rise block, much of the focus of
the recommendations of the Public Inquiry was concerned with measures to
ensure the safety of residents in high-rise blocks of flats. However,
the Government is determined to ensure that residents of all residential
buildings are as safe as possible from fire and that they feel safe
from fire.
What is a high-rise residential building?
For the purpose of the Regulations, a residential building is to be
considered as high-rise if either of the following circumstances apply:
- the building is at least 18 metres above ground level, measured
from the lowest ground level adjoining the outside of the building to
the height of the floor in the top storey (ignoring any top storey that
contains only plant or machinery); or
- the building is seven storeys or more, excluding any storeys below ground level).
A mezzanine floor is to be treated as a storey if its floor area is
at least 50% of the floor area of the largest storey in the building
which is not below ground level.
Responsible Persons
It is the Fire Safety Order that defines the meaning of Responsible Person in the context of both the Order and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations.
As the term “Responsible Person” has a legal definition, it is not
open to building owners, enforcing authorities or others to choose to
“make” someone the Responsible Person, nor can the responsibility for
compliance with either the Fire Safety Order or the Fire Safety
(England) Regulations be delegated to others (though the Responsible
Person will normally need to engage other parties, such as contractors,
to assist them in compliance).
Under certain circumstances, duties can also fall on individuals
other than the Responsible Person if any of the requirements of the Fire
Safety Order relate to matters within their control. In such
circumstances, the Responsible Person will still also retain their
duties under the Fire Safety Order.
For all practical purposes, in the case of a block of flats, the
Responsible Person will be the person who has control of the premises in
connection with carrying on a business. This will, typically, be the
freeholder or the managing agents for the block, or, for example, a
residents’ management company.
If any part of the building is a workplace, the employer of persons
employed to work in that workplace will be a Responsible Person. This
can occur if, for example, a concierge is employed or parts of the
building are used for commercial purposes.
So, there may be circumstances in which there is more than one
Responsible Person within the same building. However, even in these
circumstances, overall control of the building most commonly rests with
the freeholder, managing agents or a residents’ management company.
Sometimes, confusion arises from the term “Person”, because it might
be expected that the “Responsible Person” is an individual living person
(or what, in law, is described as a “natural person”). However,
commonly, the Responsible Person will be an organisation, such as a
property company or firm of managing agents (or what, in law, is
described as a “legal person”).
If you are unclear as to whether you are the Responsible Person for
the purpose of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations, or otherwise are
unsure as to the correct identity of the Responsible Person, you should
seek legal advice. It is not the role of, for example, the fire and
rescue service to advise you in this respect, though, in enforcing the
Regulations, the fire and rescue service may require to be informed as
to the identity of the Responsible Person.
Duties of the Responsible Person (General)
You must display fire safety instructions in a conspicuous part of
the building. The instructions must be in a comprehensible form that
residents can reasonably be expected to understand.
The instructions must cover the following matters:
- the evacuation strategy for the building (e.g. stay put or simultaneous evacuation)
- instructions on how to report a fire (e.g. use of 999 or 112, the correct address to give to the fire and rescue service, etc.)
- any other instruction that tells residents what they must do when a fire has occurred
These instructions must also be provided directly to new residents as
soon as reasonably practicable after they move into their
accommodation, as should also be the case if there are any material
changes to the instructions (e.g. as a result of alterations to the
building). In addition, these instructions should be reissued to all
existing residents at periods not exceeding 12 months.
You must also provide relevant information about fire doors,
particularly residents’ flat entrance doors, as these play an important
part in containing any fire within the flat in which it starts. In
particular, you must provide information to all residents to the effect
that:
- fire doors should be shut when not in use
- residents or their guests should not tamper with self-closing devices on fire doors
- residents should report any fault with, or damage to, fire doors immediately to the Responsible Person
Again, the information about fire doors must be provided to residents
as soon as reasonably practicable after they move into their flat and
at periods not exceeding 12 months thereafter.
Duties of the Responsible Person (Buildings over 11m in height)
If you are the Responsible Person for a building which contains two
or more sets of domestic premises and is above 11m in height (typically a
building of five storeys or more), the Fire Safety (England)
Regulations impose additional duties to those described above. For the
purpose of these duties, the height of the building should be measured as described (PDF, 4.18MB).
These additional duties are set out below.
Fire door checks (Communal areas)
All fire doors in communal areas of the building must be checked at
least every three months. Typically, these doors will include:
- doors to stairways and stairway lobbies
- cross-corridor doors, which sub-divide corridors
- doors to storage and electrical equipment cupboards
- doors to riser shafts, within which various services run
In checking these doors, you must ensure that the doors are
effectively self-closing (or, in the case of cupboard and riser doors,
are kept locked shut). Self-closing doors should fully close into their
frames when the doors are opened at any angle and released.
A simple way to check this is to:
- firstly, open the door fully, then let it go
- then open the door to around 15 degrees and let it go
In both cases, the door should fully close into the frame, overcoming the resistance of any latch or friction with the floor.
You should also check that doors, frames and any glazing are
undamaged and that any intumescent strips and smoke seals (where
provided) are also undamaged.
Defects in the doors, frames and self-closing devices should be rectified as soon as reasonably practicable.
It is not intended that these checks should involve any more
detailed, technical examination of the doors, or of the original
standard of installation, nor is it intended that these checks need to
be carried out by specialists. It is expected that the Responsible
Person, or their staff, should, with simple instruction, be able to
carry out the checks.
Flat entrance door checks
You must use best endeavours to undertake checks of all flat entrance fire doors at periods not exceeding 12 months.
You must keep a record of the steps taken to comply with this
requirement, including, in any case where access to a flat was not
granted for this purpose during any 12-month period, the steps taken to
try to gain access.
In checking these doors, you must ensure that the doors are
effectively self-closing. The doors should fully close into their
frames when the doors are opened at any angle and released, overcoming
the resistance of any latch on the door. A simple way to perform this
check is described above for communal area doors.
You should also check that doors, frames and any glazing are
undamaged (and that glazing has not, obviously, been replaced with
glazing that might not be fire-resisting), and that any intumescent
strips and smoke seals (where provided) are also undamaged.
Defects in the doors, frames and self-closing devices should be
rectified as soon as reasonably practicable and depending on the risks
identified.
It is not intended that these checks should involve any more
detailed, technical examination of the doors, or of the original
standard of installation, nor is it intended that these checks need to
be carried out by specialists. It is expected that the Responsible
Person, or their staff, should, with simple instruction, be able to
carry out the checks.
In the case of any leasehold flats, arrangements will need to be made
with the leaseholders to grant access to their flats for the purpose of
flat entrance door checks. In the event of an impasse, a court order
can be obtained for this purpose. It is recommended that any new leases
include this right of access.
Where inspections identify the need for repair or replacement of any
fire door (e.g. communal or flat entrance door), this work must be
undertaken by a competent contractor as soon as reasonably practicable.
Duties of the Responsible Person (High-rise buildings)
If you are the Responsible Person for a high-rise residential
building which contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the Fire
Safety (England) Regulations impose further additional duties to those
described above. These further additional duties are set out below.
There are a few requirements for premises of this height that require
information to be sent electronically to your local fire and rescue
service. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC)
can signpost you to your local service. In addition, it will have
information on what type of file size and format they can take, and what
email address to use.
Wayfinding signage
Because of the height of the building, there is a need to provide
suitable signage to assist fire and rescue service crews with
orientation in the event of a fire. (If the building was designed after
November 2020, the appropriate signage should already have been
incorporated within the building for compliance with the Building
Regulations.)
The principles that apply to this signage are as follows:
- When firefighters reach the landing of any stairway, there should
be signage that clearly indicates to them the floor number on which they
are located and the flat numbers on that floor.
- When firefighters use a lift designed for their use to reach
floors, the same signage should be clearly visible to them when the lift
doors open.
- The signs must be visible both in normal conditions and in low lighting or smoky conditions.
Read a detailed specification for these signs (PDF, 4.18MB), including the size of the lettering, the typeface to be used, the mounting height and suitable wording.
You must make sure that the signs are maintained in good condition,
so it is important that you check them regularly (e.g. during other
legally required checks within the building).
In the event of a fire in any high-rise residential building, it is
important that certain information is readily available for the fire and
rescue service.
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations require that the information is
held in a secure information box, which must be positioned at a
location in or on the building that is readily accessible to the fire
and rescue service. The box must be capable of containing the documents
required by these Regulations, and it must be reasonably secure from
unauthorised access and vandalism.
You must provide the local fire and rescue service with the details
necessary to access the secure information box and must inform the fire
and rescue service as soon as practicable if there are any changes to
these details. Typically, a secure information box is protected against
unauthorised access by means of a lock that is openable only with a key
that is legally protected from copying and that is carried on fire and
rescue service appliances. However, other alternative means of securing
the box might be acceptable to the local fire and rescue service, with
whom there should be some discussion prior to adopting an alternative.
For the purposes of these Regulations, your secure information box must contain:
- the name, address and telephone number within the United Kingdom of the Responsible Person
- the name and contact information of such other persons within the
United Kingdom as are provided with facilities to, and are permitted to,
access the building on behalf of the Responsible Person
- a copy of the floor plans and building plan
You must inspect the secure information box at least annually to
ensure that it remains secure and accessible to the fire and rescue
service. It is strongly recommended that you also ensure that the
information within the box remains accurate.
Good practice can be found on the provision of secure information boxes in high-rise residential buildings.
While it contains useful guidelines for example on the appropriate
positioning on boxes, it proposes a higher specification of security of
the box than is required by the Regulations.
You must prepare a record of the design of the external walls of the
building, including details of the materials from which they are
constructed. You must provide this record to the local fire and rescue
service by electronic means.
This record must identify the level of risk to which the design and
materials of the external walls gives rise, as determined by the fire
risk assessment that you are required by the Fire Safety Order to carry
out. You must also record any mitigating steps that have been taken in
respect of that risk.
Other than in blocks of flats with external walls of traditional
masonry construction, unless the above information is readily available
and known to be reasonably accurate, determining the information
required by the Fire Safety (England) Regulations will normally require
special skills, not normally held by a typical fire risk assessor
engaged to carry out the fire risk assessment required by the Fire
Safety Order. Where necessary, you must seek the advice and assistance
of someone with sufficient training and experience/knowledge. You will,
however, remain responsible for compliance with the Regulations.
In the case of external wall construction that is known to be of
traditional masonry construction, it might be reasonable to assume that
the risk of external fire spread is acceptable without further
investigation, in which case this should be recorded within the record
provided to the fire and rescue service. However, even in the case of
low- risk, traditional masonry construction, if there are attachments
(such as balconies or decorative cladding) that, because of their
combustibility, might result in rapid external fire spread, further
appraisal by a specialist is likely to be necessary.
The purpose of providing this information to the fire and rescue
service is to assist them with operational pre-planning and to provide
information that will be of value to front line crews at the time of a
fire.
Accordingly, the information should be presented in a form, and be
restricted to high-level detail, that is of practical value for this
purpose; over-elaborate detail of construction, without any explanation
of the implications in respect of fire performance and risk, may not be
of practical value.
On the other hand, it is unlikely that simple identification of
materials used in the external walls, whether combustible or not, will
always help the fire and rescue service.
Typically, other than in the case of low-risk, traditional masonry
construction, the information that should be provided will comprise the
following:
- an overview of the design of the external wall
- brief information on the materials of construction, insulation and any cladding
- any known defects in the construction (either as originally built or currently)
- the level of risk presented by the external walls, cladding and
any attachments (as determined, where necessary, by an appraisal carried
out by specialists)
- any mitigating steps that have been taken in relation to the risk as identified in the fire risk assessment
A code of practice for fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding is published by the British Standards Institution as PAS 9980.
A suitable template for recording the information must be provided electronically to the fire and rescue service.
If any significant changes are made to the external walls of the
building, the record described above must be revised, and the revised
version must be provided to the fire and rescue service.
Floor plans and building plan
In the event of a fire in a high-rise building, plans of the building
are of great assistance to fire and rescue service crews. Accordingly,
the Fire Safety (England) Regulations require that you must prepare a
plan for each floor of a high-rise residential building.
An exception to the above is that, if the plans for each floor would
be the same in all material respects, you can prepare just one single
plan for those floors, provided the plan clearly indicates the floors to
which it relates.
The floor plans must, together, identify the location of all lifts
(identifying any designed for use by firefighters or for evacuation) and
key fire-fighting equipment in the building including rising mains,
smoke control systems and fire suppression systems.
In addition, you must prepare a single-page building plan, which shows the following:
- the environs of the building (e.g. the building and its immediate surroundings)
- details of the use of the building, for example for commercial or residential purposes
- access for fire and rescue appliances
- the dimensions of the building
- information on the number of storeys of the building and the number of basement levels (if any)
- information regarding the presence of maisonettes or scissor section flats
- inlets for dry rising mains
- inlets for wet rising mains
- the location of shut-off controls for any sprinkler systems
- access points for the building
- the location of the secure information box
- the location of the central controls for any smoke control system
- the location of any firefighting shaft
- the location of main stairways in the building
- the location of the controls for any evacuation alert system
You must place a hard copy of the floor plans and the building plan
in the secure information box. In addition, you must provide the local
fire and rescue service with a copy of these plans by electronic means
(i.e. email).
If any changes are made to the layout of the building or the location
of the key fire‑fighting equipment described above, you must update the
floor plans and building plan as soon as reasonably practicable after
the changes are made. You will then need to update the plans provided
to the fire and rescue service by electronic means.
Lifts and essential fire-fighting equipment
In high-rise residential buildings, one or more lifts are designed to
be used by fire and rescue service crews to reach upper floors during a
fire. In addition, there are other systems and equipment that will be
used by the crews, such as rising mains (i.e. dry or wet risers) by
which the crews obtain water on upper floors.
In addition, high-rise residential buildings normally incorporate
other special fire safety measures on which the safety of both residents
and firefighters may depend. An example is a smoke control system that
is intended to limit the passage of smoke into any stairway by removing
smoke from common corridors and lobbies. These systems are commonly,
in turn, operated by a fire detection system.
In some high-rise residential buildings, there may be other systems
or equipment that are provided for fire and rescue service use, such as
evacuation alert systems, by which the fire and rescue service can
operate special evacuation alert sounders within flats.
It is essential that all of these systems which are present operate
correctly in the event of fire. Accordingly, the Regulations make
requirements regarding routine checking of all such systems and
equipment. These checks are in addition to the servicing and
maintenance of the systems (usually by a contractor) required by the
Fire Safety Order.
You must undertake monthly routine checks of all lifts that are
intended for use by firefighters. Similarly, you must undertake monthly
checks of any evacuation lifts that are provided for the evacuation of
disabled people in the event of fire.
You must also undertake monthly checks of the following:
- rising mains
- smoke control systems
- fire suppression systems
- fire detection and fire alarm systems, including any systems
linked to other fire safety equipment, such as smoke control systems
- evacuation alert systems (a visual check of the control and indicating equipment, but not testing of the system)
- automatic door opening or closing systems linked to fire detection and fire alarm systems
You must keep records of all of these monthly checks. The records of
these checks must be accessible to residents of the building.
If any of these checks reveal a fault in one of the above systems or
equipment, you must take steps the rectify the fault. If the fault
cannot be rectified within 24 hours of its discovery, you must, as soon
as reasonably practicable, notify the local fire and rescue service by
electronic means. You must also then inform them by electronic means
when the fault has been rectified.
NFCC has developed templates for reporting faults and rectifications
that can be used to send this information to your local fire and rescue
service. Many fire and rescue services would prefer you to use these
templates as it helps them process the information in a way that is
useful for operational colleagues.
Responsible persons should consider the impact of the fault (e.g. the
impact of smoke control system failure on means of escape) and the need
for any consequent mitigation measures. Responsible persons should also
consider the need to review the fire risk assessment for the building,
particularly in the case of faults that will be of a prolonged nature.
Consideration should also be given to any potential impact on evacuation
arrangements (e.g. in the event of failure of an evacuation lift). The
need for continued compliance with duties under the Fire Safety Order
should be taken into account.
It is not envisaged that any of the above checks will need to be
carried out by specialists or contractors (though some Responsible
Persons may choose to have the checks carried out by maintenance
contractors that carry out other routine maintenance checks on a
monthly, or more frequent, basis). The checks required generally
involve only visual inspection or simple functional operating checks.
However, the routine checks must confirm that the system or equipment
is in efficient working order and in good repair, based on guidance for
routine checks provided by the relevant industry standard or any
recommendations made by the manufacturers of equipment within an
operators’ manual.
The following are examples of the types of checks you will likely
carry out for the above requirements but do make sure you refer to any
operator’s manual for specifics about your equipment:
Lifts
The monthly check will involve operation of the firefighters’ switch
(or evacuation lift switch) to ensure that it causes the lift to return
to the fire and rescue service access (or evacuation) level, after which
it can be operated only by the controls within the car. It should then
be ensured that these controls enable the lift to be taken to an upper
floor, on which the doors can then be opened and closed from within the
car. You should also ensure, by means of a random check, that the
landing controls are disabled and cannot call the lift to the floor in
question.
Smoke control systems
Typically all that is required is to carry out one test each month to
ensure that the smoke control system is capable of responding to a
signal from any associated fire detection and fire alarm system.
Additionally, it should respond to operation of any manual control
provided for use by the fire and rescue service. Similarly, in the case
of fire doors that are normally held open but close automatically on
operation of a fire detection system (which are not common in blocks of
flats), the monthly check will simply confirm that the doors do close on
operation of the system.
Other systems and equipment
Normally it will be sufficient to carry out a visual check to ensure
that the systems and equipment are undamaged and have not been subject
to interference. For example, this would apply in the case of the inlet
and the landing valves of rising mains and the control valves of fire
suppression systems.
Evacuation alert systems
No routine tests should be carried out; the system should only be
tested at the time of routine maintenance (e.g. by a contractor). The
monthly check only involves a visual examination of the enclosure for
the system control and indicating equipment to ensure that it has not
been damaged or, for example, subjected to vandalism.
