Regulations and law enforcement over time can often be hard to read and understand what is current. So we created a little timeline of significant changes to learn from.
What are they and why do regulations change?
Fire Safety Regulations are made to provide information, legal requirements, rules in aid of managing the complex safety system. These are often seeing amendments and adaptations as a result of research, incident and inquiry.
This timeline outlines significant points of change that have led to regulations today.
Read on for further detail...
The Fire Precautions Act 1971
The Fire Precautions Act 1971 is a law that states the duties of landlords, occupiers and owners to ensure the safety of their tenants from the risk of fire. The law requires them to obtain a fire certificate from the fire authority, and to comply with the fire safety measures specified in the certificate. The fire authority can also serve a notice to prohibit or restrict the use of a workplace if there is a serious threat to life from fire.
It requires Accommodation, institutions providing care, entertainment facilities or recreation, places of teaching and training. For a certificate to be issued the premises must provide:
Fire Safety Measures
The Act requires landlords to ensure that their premises possess suitable fire safety measures. This includes the likes of smoke alarms, fire doors, emergency lighting and fire extinguishers. It is also vital that these measures are regularly tested and maintained. Failure to do so could result in prosecution.
Fire Safety Training
The Act requires landlords to provide relevant fire safety training for their employees. This includes providing information on the dangers in the event of a fire and the procedures to be followed. Failure to do so could result in prosecution.
Evacuation Procedures
The Act requires landlords to have suitable evacuation procedures in place. These should include information on the safest routes for evacuation and the provision of fire safety information to tenants.
Fire Inspections
The Act allows for the service of a fire inspector to inspect premises and ensure that all elements are compliant with the Act. This includes an inspection of fire safety measures and evacuation procedures. The fire inspector also has the ability to issue a Fire Certificate, this being a legal document outlining the fire safety requirements of the premises.
The Fire Precautions (Factories, Offices, Shops and Railway Premises) Regulation 1976
The Fire Precautions (Factories, Offices, Shops and Railway Premises) Regulations 1976, provided some updates to the FPA and revealed several points about self-employed individuals, the numbers of hours worked (part-time workers) and how large numbers of these could be used to bring some "grey" premises into the scope of requiring a fire certificate. This also brought in exemptions from the requirement to have a fire certificate in certain small premises.
The Government decided to require fire certificates for major chemical plants and other high risk premises and to give enforcement to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It issued the Fire Certificates (Special Premises) Regulations 1976, enforced by the HSE on a similar line to the Fire Precautions Act 1971.
Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997
Fire risk assessment requirements were amended due to fire brigades being too inflexible. The fire risk assessment responsibility was taken away from the fire service and placed on the employers however the fire service would be the enforcing authority for the legislation. Under the Fire Precautions Act, Section 10 gave the fire brigade the power to close a premises if there was danger from fire. Section 4 of the Fire Precautions Act did give some limited powers to issue a 'Notice of Steps' to be taken to correct any defects.
The workplace regulations brought in a new enforcement method, the 'improvement notice'. This allowed the enforcing authority to serve notice of any defects and give a reasonable time scale as to when the work should be completed; failure to complete the work in that time could result in prosecution & potential closure of the facility.
Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 section 6 stated the requirement that the Fire Service must provide a level of education in terms of fire safety. Not only should this include legislation enforcement but also a proactive strategy i.e.
– provision of information, publicity, and encouragement in respect of the steps to be taken to prevent fires and death or injury by fire.
– giving of advice on request on how to prevent fires and restrict their spread within buildings and other property and the means of escape from buildings and other property in the case of fire.
This meant that the service has had to change its a fire safety strategies and now include the likes of public education as well as legal enforcement. All fire and rescue services to date have specialist departments dealing with community fire safety education. The crucial job of these departments is to educate by talking to school children as well as vulnerable areas of the community. To assist the public with many FRS (Fire Rescue Service) running campaigns, often offering free smoke detectors as part of the drive to reduce deaths in the home and public buildings.
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
In 2000 the government ordered a review of fire safety legislations bringing all the odd fire legislations under the category of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 which then became law in 2006.
The greatest change in the legislation was that it brought about the concept of risk assessment rather than prescriptive codes.
The Fire Precautions Act had relied on codes and guides for its implementation, and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations had changed that by introducing risk assessment as a way of complying with the regulation, but because the requirement for a fire certificate was never repealed, the guides and codes were still used as a prescriptive means of applying the law. It was then taken one step further and a risk assessment based regime was fully implemented.
The Fire Safety Order also lays out the foundation of the fire risk assessment by saying that the responsible person (employer, person in control of the building, or the owner) must take responsibility for the safety of their employees and anyone else who may lawfully be on or near their premises.
The following must be provided (to protect their employees and anyone else who may lawfully be on or near the premises):
means of detection and giving warning in the event of fire
the provision of means of escape
the provision of emergency lighting to escape routes
means of fighting fire only where necessary
the training of staff in fire safety
the publication of an "emergency plan" and the "fire safety procedures" for a specific building
The Fire Safety Order then informs the responsible person (employer or person responsible for the building, or owner) how they must assess these items in order to protect their employees and anyone else who may lawfully be on or near their premises.
carry out a fire risk assessment of the workplace and communal areas in blocks of flats or maisonettes
identify the significant findings of the risk assessment and the details of anyone who might be at risk in case of fire; under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations, these must be recorded if more than five persons are employed
provide and maintain such fire precautions as are necessary to safeguard those who use the workplace
provide information, instruction and training to employees about the fire precautions in the workplace
The Fire Safety Order 2005 now requires the responsible person for each building to carry out or commission from a competent person a Fire Risk Assessment to ensure that the general fire precautions within a particular building are fit for the purposes. The current use of an old building by today's occupiers and users has to be taken into account, in arriving at the appropriate general fire precautions. Thus, both proportionate and appropriate remedial "fire safety" works may be necessary to discharge the responsible person's legal duty, to control or reduce the risk to life from fire in a building.
The wider scope of UK fire safety law 1 October 2006
The Fire Safety Order 2005 applies to most buildings and sites, except for private dwellings, though the Fire Safety Order does apply to communal areas/escape routes serving dwellings. The fire authority is the principal enforcing authority. However, there are other enforcing authorities - the Health and Safety Executive for most construction sites and on ships under construction, the Defence Fire and Rescue Service for defence premises, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for nuclear sites, and the local authority for sports grounds.
Fire Safety Act 2021
In the case of multi-occupied residential buildings, the Fire Safety Act puts beyond doubt that structure, external walls and flat entrance doors fall within the scope of the Fire Safety Order. The Fire Safety Act will require responsible persons to ensure that these elements are included in their fire risk assessments, if they have not been covered already.
For many buildings, particularly high rise, we expect that responsible persons will already be aware of the composition of external walls and will have updated their fire risk assessment and have taken, or will take action to mitigate any risk.
Where this assessment has been carried out, for multi-occupied residential buildings of any height, the fire risk assessment does not need to be updated again other than after a review as required by article 9 of the Fire Safety Order.
The responsible person, or competent fire risk assessor acting on their behalf, should undertake a visual inspection of the external walls.
In many cases it will be obvious through a visual inspection that the risk to life from external fire spread is not such as to warrant an assessment. This is true in buildings with brick or masonry external walls or low risk buildings which do not present any significant risk of fire spread. In these cases, the fire risk assessor will normally address compliance of external wall construction with the Fire Safety Order as part of the routine fire risk assessment process.
A more detailed fire risk appraisal of the external walls may be required if, for example, there is a known or suspected risk from the form of construction used for the external wall, such as the presence of combustible materials used for cladding or external wall insulation.
Where a more detailed fire risk appraisal is required the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool may be used to determine the urgency of the inspection.
PAS 9980
PAS 9980 provides a methodology for the fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding in existing multi-occupied residential buildings. In cases where a more detailed assessment is required, a competent person should be appointed. PAS 79-2:20202 and PAS 9980 provide guidance.
Where a more detailed PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal - called Fire Risk Appraisal of the External Wall system (FRAEW in PAS 9980) - is conducted it should provide the responsible person with recommendations on remedial action considered necessary, with a suitable time frame that takes into account both the nature of the works required for remediation and any recommended short term measures.
The intention for inclusion of ‘structure’ within the Fire Safety Act is that there should be a visual inspection of the construction and layout of the building on the basis that it will have been built to resist early structural collapse in the event of a fire.
Intrusive inspections are only required if the fire risk assessor has serious concerns about the structural fire protection of the building.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
Regulations were introduced under article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order) to implement the majority of those recommendations made to government in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report which required a change in the law.
These regulations made 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.
Also, the regulations require responsible persons in multi-occupied residential buildings or high-rise buildings, as well as those above 11 metres in height, to provide additional safety measures.
In all multi-occupied residential buildings, the regulations require responsible persons to provide residents with fire safety instructions and information on the importance of fire doors. The regulations apply to existing buildings, and requirements for new buildings may be different.
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.
Multi-occupied residential buildings with 2 or more sets of domestic premises, responsible individuals are required to:
Fire safety instructions should be provided for their residents, which should contain information on how to report a fire and any other instruction that outlines the steps to take if a fire has occurred. This must be based on the evacuation strategy for the given building.
Regulation 10
So why did additional Fire Door Maintenance regulation demand increase?
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 made it a legal requirement as from 23rd the January 2023 for responsible individuals for all multi-occupied residential buildings in England with heights over 11 metres, to take some additional measures.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report highlighted the “Fire doors play an essential role in preventing or obstruct the spread of smoke & toxic gasses as well as limiting damage to the effective compartmentation of buildings.” This statement was based on the evidence that the fire doors in the Grenfell Tower did not act the way that they should, unsuccessful ability to prevent smoke and gases from spreading.
With this statement highlighting the lack of regularity in fire door checks & their compromised fire resisting capabilities it was made apparent that new measures needed to be implemented. 23rd of January 2023 saw the enforcement of the following actions from responsible persons of these multi-occupational buildings:
- They must undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors (Including Door Closers & other self-closing devices) in the common parts.
- They must undertake, with the responsible individual to take the best approach, checks of flat entrance doors (Including Door Closers & other self-closing devices) that lead into the building’s common parts.
The best approach refers to the ability to communicate & agree a suitable date for the residents so that you are guaranteed access.
These checks must be in depth and documented by a responsible person(s) that is competent in spotting the non-conformances in fire doors.
There are many aspects that the responsible person should consider such as:
Amendments: Ensure that any door replacements are fire resisting as well as all the elements that compose the door.
Apertures: Gaps in the form of glazing & air transfer grilles. Fire stopping & intumescent glazing systems or intumescent air transfer grilles.
Gaps & Seals: Gaps around the door frame should be 3-4mm. No loose screws in hinges. The bottom gap should be no greater than 8mm if it is a fire & smoke door, the gap should be no more than 3mm.
Door Closer: Door closer should be fully functioning. Should not be hard to pass the smoke seals.
Operation: The whole door assembly should close correctly and easily around all 4 sides.
Visible damage: There is no visible damage, wear & tear.
Regulation 10 in summary:
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 made it a legal requirement from 23 January 2023 that all responsible persons for multi-occupied residential buildings in England with storeys over 11 meters in height to:
- Carry out quarterly checks of all fire doors (including doors closers & self-closing devices) in the common parts.
- Carry out, with the best approach, annual checks on all flat entrance doors (including door closers & self-closing devices) The responsible person should agree a date for the residents to ensure access is guaranteed.
The regulations also have a further requirement that the residents must be provided with information regarding the fire doors & the buildings safety, with this in place residents can both monitor their door as well as take actions towards maintaining the doors fire resisting capability (i.e. not propping open doors, non-compliant actions and amendments to door, reporting damages and the consequences of leaving these un-reported)
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