The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.
The Regulations that apply to England only have been introduced under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order).
These Regulations seek to improve fire safety of high-rise residential buildings by implementing most of the recommendations made by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry in its Phase 1 report.
These Regulations apply in England and require that the Responsible Person of a multi-occupied residential building take specific action depending on the height of the building.
The new regulations under article 24 are an important step forward in the implementation of the recommendations made in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report which require a change in the law.
Buildings affected by the regulations
The regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order) apply to the following buildings in England.
• High-rise residential buildings
• Residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height
• All multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises
High-rise residential buildings
These regulations make it a requirement in law for responsible persons of high-rise blocks of flats to provide information to Fire and Rescue Services to assist them to plan and, if needed, provide an effective operational response.
For multi-occupied residential buildings (at least 18 metres in height or 7 or more storeys), the Responsible Person needs to:
Building Plans: provide the fire and rescue services with electronic copies of building floor plans and keep hard copies of those plans in a secure information box accessible by firefighters.
External wall Systems: provide the fire and rescue services with information about the building’s external wall system and provide updates if there are material changes to these walls.
Lifts and Fire-Fighting equipment: undertake monthly checks on fire and evacuation lifts and other firefighting equipment and inform the fire and safety services if a lift used by firefighters or firefighting equipment is out of order for longer than 24 hours.
Information Boxes: install and maintain a secure information box containing the name and UK contact details of the responsible person and hard copies of building floor plans.
Wayfinding Signage: install way finding signage which is visible in low light conditions showing flat and floor numbers in the stairwells.
Residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres
Responsible persons in multi-occupied residential buildings which are above 11 metres in height, and in high-rise buildings need to provide additional safety measures.
In residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height, responsible persons are required to:
• Undertake annual checks of flat entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts
All multi-occupied residential buildings
Responsible persons for all multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises including high-rise residential buildings are required to:
• Provide residents with information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety
• 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
Information to residents fact sheet
Wayfinding signage fact sheet