The Fire Safety Act 2021 was introduced
in Parliament in March 2020 and received Royal Assent in April
2021. It amended the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order
2005.
The Act clarifies that the Fire Safety Order, which is the main
part of fire safety law applying to any building with two or more
sets of domestic premises, applies to the building's structure and
external walls and any common parts, including the front doors of
residential areas. It also clarifies that references to external
walls in the Order include "doors or windows in those walls" and
"anything attached to the exterior of those walls (including
balconies)."
These amendments to the Order aim to increase enforcement action
in these areas, particularly where remediation of aluminium
composite material (ACM) cladding is not taking place. While the
Bill was passed at the end of April, it requires secondary
legislation to come into force. This will happen at the same time
as risk-based guidance on buildings is issued by the Secretary of
State. This has not yet happened.
We have been working with the Local Government Association (LGA)
to press the Home Office for early discussions and clarity on the
content of the Regulations and associated guidance and the
timetable for commencement of the provisions of the Act. We met
with senior Home Office Officials on 13 September and have been
informed that we can expect the necessary Regulations under the Act
to be laid before Parliament by the end of October with
commencement from April 2022. However, the accompanying Guidance
may not be available until later in the year.
The Act and accompanying Regulations will place significant
duties on landlords of high rise buildings, including the provision
of electronic copies of an evacuation plan for their buildings to
the local Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) and the placing of a hard
copy of this plan in a secure information box on site which should
also contain the name and contact details of the designated
"Responsible Person" and hard copies of the building floor plans as
well as the evacuation plan.
Monthly checks will also be required on the operation of lifts
intended for use by firefighters in their buildings and to check
the functionality of other key pieces of firefighting equipment and
to report any defective lifts or equipment to their local FRS
within 24 hours of detection on an exception basis and to record
the outcome of checks and make them available to residents.
Landlords of multi-occupied residential
buildings will be required to undertake annual checks of flat
entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common
parts of multi-occupied buildings and to install signage visible in
low light or smoky conditions that identifies flat and floor
numbers in the stairwells of relevant buildings.
Landlords will also be required to provide
relevant fire safety instructions to their residents of all
multi-occupied buildings which will include instructions on
evacuation, how to report a fire and any other document which sets
out what a resident must do once a fire has occurred. At this stage
it remains unclear when the Government will respond to the earlier
consultation on proposals to introduce Personal
Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) in high-rise
residential buildings.
If they have not already done so, ARCH would
urge its member councils to begin preparing for their new
responsibilities under the Fire Safety Act in advance of the
publication of the Regulations and Guidance.