23 Sep New Fire Safety Regulations in England will implement Grenfell Tower inquiry recommendations
New fire safety regulations in England will implement most recommendations from the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
After the fatal fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017, which killed 72 people, recommendations were made in order to ensure high rise residential buildings were safer and had adequate fire escape evacuation procedures and safety measures in place.
Now the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 will introduce new duties for building owners and managers under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This move implements most of the recommendations of the Phase 1 report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry and will come into force on 23 January 2023.
Under the regulations, for high rise residential buildings (at least 18 metres or seven storeys high) responsible persons must:
- Share electronically with their local fire and rescue service information about the design and materials of a building’s external wall system, and inform the fire and rescue service of any material changes to these walls
- Provide their local fire and rescue service with up-to-date electronic building floor plans, and keep hard copies of the building’s floor plans – and a single page building plan which identifies key firefighting equipment – in a secure information box accessible by firefighters
- Install wayfinding signage which is visible in low light or smoky conditions that identifies flat and floor numbers in the stairwells of relevant buildings
- Establish a minimum of monthly checks on the operation of firefighting lifts and evacuation lifts, and check the functionality of essential pieces of firefighting equipment. Responsible persons 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
- 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
For multi-occupied residential buildings that are over 11 metres high, responsible persons must now also undertake quarterly checks on all communal fire doors and annual checks on flat entrance doors. Additionally in all multi-occupied residential buildings, responsible persons must provide residents with relevant fire safety instructions and information about the importance of fire doors.
The regulations sit alongside the Building Safety Act amendments to the Fire Safety Order, and the government’s overhaul of supporting guidance under article 50 of the Fire Safety Order, which will be published later in 2022.