New Fire Safety Guidance for Responsible Persons

In England and Wales the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 sets out the duties that apply to persons responsible for fire safety in non-domestic premises such as workplaces and in the communal parts of shared residential buildings such as corridors and stairways in blocks of flats.

Following on from the Grenfell Tower fire the Building Safety Act 2022 introduced a number of changes to these regulations which are due to come into force on 1^st October 2023. There are a number of significant changes being introduced and the government has published a guide to help responsible persons prepare.

Some of the key changes include:

• A requirement for all responsible persons to record their fire risk assessment in full. Previously it was only a requirement to record the significant findings of your fire risk assessment if an organisation employed 5 or more people. This increases the amount of information that a fire risk assessment should include and the number of people who will need to have a written fire risk assessment.
• A requirement to make a record of the name (and organisation details) of anyone you employ to assist with creating your fire risk assessment.
• An increased requirement to cooperate and communicate with other responsible persons in shared premises.
• Where there is a change of responsible person a requirement to provide information to the new responsible person, for example if a building changes ownership.
• A requirement for responsible persons to cooperate with accountable persons where a building is identified as a higher risk residential building. That is a building with at least two residential units that is at least 18m or 7 storeys tall.
• A duty to provide information to residents in buildings that contain two or more sets of domestic premises.

If you have any questions or would like support with managing issues at your workplace, please speak to your usual contact or get in touch using the form below.