The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
October 2023
Background
The regulations came into force on 23 January 2023.
Following the Grenfell Tower fire, the government established the Independent Grenfell Tower Inquiry in August 2017. The Inquiry published its first Phase report in October 2019. This report made several recommendations, which the government, in principle, accepted on the day it was published.
Some of these recommendations were directed towards government and required a change in the law to implement. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 implemented most of these recommendations.
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 were laid under article 24 of the Fire Safety Order 2005. Regulations made under article 24 can impose requirements on responsible persons or others, including building owners and building managers, in relation to mitigating the risk to residents for specific premises.
The Fire Safety Order applies to all premises including workplaces and the common parts of all multi-occupied residential buildings. It already required responsible persons where necessary to take certain steps to ensure the safety of residents.
Regulation Summary
In high-rise residential buildings, responsible persons are required to:
- Building plans: provide their local Fire and Rescue Service with up-to-date electronic building floor plans and to place a hard copy of these plans, alongside a single page building plan which identifies key firefighting equipment, in a secure information box on site.
- External wall systems: provide to their local Fire and Rescue Service information about the design and materials of a high-rise building’s external wall system and to inform the Fire and Rescue Service of any material changes to these walls. Also, they will be required to provide information in relation to the level of risk that the design and materials of the external wall structure gives rise to and any mitigating steps taken.
- Lifts and other key firefighting equipment: undertake monthly checks on the operation of lifts intended for use by firefighters, and evacuation lifts in their building and check the functionality of other key pieces of firefighting equipment. They will also be required to report any defective lifts or equipment to their local Fire and Rescue Service as soon as possible after detection if the fault cannot be fixed within 24 hours, and to record the outcome of checks and make them available to residents.
- Information boxes: install and maintain a secure information box in their building. This box must contain the name and contact details of the Responsible Person and hard copies of the building floor plans.
- Wayfinding signage: to install signage visible in low light or smoky conditions that identifies flat and floor numbers in the stairwells of relevant buildings.
In residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height, responsible persons are required to:
- Fire doors: undertake annual checks of flat entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts.
In all multi-occupied residential buildings with 2 or more sets of domestic premises reponsible persons are required to:
- Fire safety instructions: provide relevant fire safety instructions to their residents, which will include instructions on how to report a fire and any other instruction which sets out what a resident must do once a fire has occurred, based on the evacuation strategy for the building.
- Fire door information: provide residents with information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety.
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