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Fire Safety Act regulations expected by end of October 16/09/2021 Labelled as Regulation

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.

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