New Fire Safety Regulations come into effect

The new Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into effect today (Monday 23 January 2023).

The Regulations implement most of the recommendations put forward in the initial report  published following the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 which claimed 72 lives.

ECA Technical Director Mike Smith said:

“Although it has taken some time since the tragic fire at Grenfell in 2017 to introduce new legislation and guidance relating to fire safety in residential buildings, ECA and FSA welcome the introduction of these new regulations and supporting guidance.

“These provide much-needed detail and impose duties on responsible persons for buildings which have two or more sets of domestic premises and contain common parts through which residents would need to evacuate. We are also pleased to see more stringent requirements for buildings over 11m in height and high-rise buildings.”

They require "responsible persons" for high-rise residential buildings in England to do the following:

• Provide local fire services with up-to-date electronic building floor plans and to put a hard copy in a secure information box on site 
• Provide local fire services information about the design and materials of the building’s external wall system and to inform them of changes to these materials. 
• Provide information about the level of risk the external wall structure gives rise to and mitigating steps taken 
• Undertake monthly checks on the operation of lifts and the functionality of other pieces of firefighting equipment, informing the fire service of faults as soon as possible if it cannot be fixed within 24 hours – the outcome of checks should be made available to residents. 
• Install and maintain a secure information box containing the name and contact details of the responsible person 
• Install wayfinding signage visible in low light or smoky conditions identifying flat and floor numbers in the stairwells of relevant buildings 

In residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height, responsible persons will be required to:  

• 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 two or more sets of domestic premises, responsible persons will be required to:  

• Provide relevant fire safety instructions to their residents, including instructions on how to report a fire what to do once a fire has occurred, based on the evacuation strategy for the building.  
• Provide residents with information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety. 

The full Regulations document can be read here.

ECA continues to call for electrical safety checks for buildings over 18m high. You can read more about ECA and Building Safety on our new webpage. https://www.eca.co.uk/improving-our-industry-representation/building-safety