Fire Safety Act 2021: Are you the 'Responsible Person’?

Last updated: 3rd January 2024

The Fire Safety Act 2021 was drawn up by the Government to prevent tragedies like Grenfell happening again and helps to clarify the role of the Responsible Person in managing fire safety.  

If you are responsible for enforcing fire safety in your buildings, are you aware of your responsibilities and are you keeping your tenants safe?

Who is the Responsible Person?

You are the Responsible Person for fire safety if you are deemed to have control of the premises. For example, if you are:

• An employer
• The owner of the building
• The landlord of the building
• A facilities manager, building manager, managing agent, risk assessor or anyone else with control of the premises.

New duties of the Responsible Person came into force in October 2023 under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act. Our free Guide to Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 will highlight all the changes you must be aware of, helping you understand all the new requirements and how you can keep your buildings safe and compliant. 

Revisions to the RRO 2005

The Fire Safety Act 2021 revises the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and clarifies responsibility for managing and reducing fire risk in multi-occupied residential buildings. It permits fire services to take enforcement action and hold building owners accountable if they are not compliant. 

The consequences of being unsure of compliance responsibilities can be severe. However, in our experience, organisations are still uncertain of the responsibilities that legislation places upon them, particularly considering the many recent legislative changes.

Following a recent   survey with Inside Housing, we discovered 42% of people find fire safety the most challenging area of compliance, in terms of both the fire risk assessment process and the management and delivery of fire safety actions. Additionally, almost 6 out of 10 landlords do not have fully compliant fire risk assessments in place and of those, 4 out of 10 are not delivering their fire safety actions on time and in accordance with what a fire risk assessor had set out. There are serious gaps in provision, and it is clear there is further work the sector needs to do.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the main piece of legislation governing fire safety in buildings in England and Wales. On 1st October 2023, updates to secondary legislation came into force under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, strengthening fire safety regulations by improving cooperation and coordination between Responsible Persons.  Discover the latest fire safety legislation updates here.

The new Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23rd January 2023, and brought with them new obligations and duties for Responsible Persons under article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 . For more information on these obligations, read our dedicated blog here. 

What are some of the key issues in the Fire Safety Act 2021 and what part does the Responsible Person play?

Importantly, the Fire Safety Act makes prosecution against a Responsible Person easier. All business and commercial buildings will be required to have a ‘Responsible Person’.

In residential properties, you are the Responsible Person if you own the building (only concerning the non-domestic parts) or you have control over the premises. If you run a company, it is a family-owned business or you are self-employed, you may also be the Responsible Person.

The Fire Safety Act affects multi-occupied, residential buildings – premises that consist of anything other than a single dwelling. For example, both a high-rise building with many apartments and a house renovated into two flats, require a risk assessment and adequate fire safety measures.

The Responsible Person, either on their own or with any other Responsible Person, needs to examine and renew the risk assessment processes. They must guarantee a Fire Risk Assessment is completed (including the structure and the external walls as well as door, window, and attachments such as cladding, insulation and balconies).   Action must be taken to remove or negate the risks identified.

Who is responsible for Fire Doors?

Fire doors require the correct fire-rated hardware. Entrance doors to individual flats come under the responsibility of the Responsible Person with fire doors requiring the correct intumescent and fire-rated hardware, as well as a risk assessment. Whether in public buildings, in the home or at the office, most of us have encountered fire doors and it is important to carry out regular fire door inspections.

Why are Fire doors important?

As a vital part of a building’s passive fire protection, fire doors keep smoke or fire contained in the room where it started. They are constructed of materials that withstand fire for a minimum of 30 minutes and help keep escape routes clear, aiding in the protection of the rest of the building. Intumescent hardware is fitted on the edge of the doors. It swells because of heat exposure, helping to close any gaps between the door and the frame.

Legally required in residential flats and multiple occupancy dwellings, it is also a legal requirement to install fire doors in public buildings, commercial premises, and businesses.

Following the devastation at Grenfell in 2017, the importance of appropriate checks of passive fire protection has never been more important. Over time, fire doors (just one element of passive fire protection) can become damaged due to their daily continual use.

Fire Door Inspections

The Fire Safety Act requires fire doors to be fitted with the correct fire-rated hardware and we know that ill-fitting fire doors or those with damaged hinges offer little in the way of fire resistance. Regular fire door inspections by specialist fire door surveyors will determine if fire doors are installed correctly, fit for purpose and in a suitable condition to resist fire for the required period.

What about other fire risks?

To identify fire risks, the Responsible Person is required to carry out and review a Fire Risk Assessments and record all findings.

Compartmentation, for example, is the division of a building into compartments, designed to contain a fire for a certain period. It provides tenants extra time to evacuate before escape routes are compromised by the spread of smoke and fire. However, when breaches in fire compartmentation lines occur, for example by installing new IT cables or re-configuring buildings for different uses, the effectiveness of compartmentation can be seriously compromised causing risk to life and extensive damage.

To discover everything you need to know about your journey to fire safety compliance, including compartmentation, accurately measuring building height, and FRAEWs, register for our upcoming free live webinar, 'Fire Safety: Building Height, Compartmentation, and FRAEWs', on Wednesday 15th May at 12pm.

It is imperative that individuals with fire safety responsibilities ensure that any works take into consideration the need for continued effective compartmentation of a building and that any changes are recorded in the Fire Risk Assessment.

If there are missing or defective cavity barriers within a building, the ability to slow down the spread of fire will be reduced. Similarly, fire spread within roof voids, where smoke deposits have not been previously removed, cause serious risk to life but are invisible to the eye.

  Click to read our key fire safety terms

It is vital to ensure you are aware of your compliance obligations to keep people safe. Whether you are unclear about the role of the Responsible Person or need help ensuring your Fire Risk Assessments are as comprehensive as possible, our team of fire experts can work with you to provide a complete solution to building safety, including but not limited to Fire Strategy, Passive Fire Protection and Fire Risk Assessments. For more information about our fire safety services click here.