Pennington Choices Blog

Fire Safety Legislation: Your Questions Answered

Written by Pennington Choices | Feb 21, 2024 2:38:07 PM


In our latest webinar, ‘Fire Safety Legislation: Latest legal obligations and best practice’, our experts answered your top fire safety questions live. We’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions from our webinar attendees so you can easily access expert insight and navigate your fire safety journey.  

Q: What are the regulations for buildings under 11 meters? Does it still follow the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022?

A: In relation to the non-domestic parts of residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, the following apply:

  • Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies, which requires you to undertake suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments (FRAs). 
  • The Fire Safety Act 2021 applies, which requires you to ensure your FRAs include consideration of the structure, external wall features, and flat entrance doors. 
  • The Fire Safety (England) Regulations apply, which require you to provide fire safety instructions and fire door information to tenants. Find your building’s regulations under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations here.
  • Section 156 of the Building Safety Act applies, you can check which specific requirements will apply to you by following the guidance. 

 

Q: How is the height of a building measured? 

A: There are details in PAS 9980 that highlight how we should be taking the measurement of the building’s height. The government has also posted clarifications here. 

These documents can be difficult to understand, so the way to measure it is from the surface level of the upper floor to the lowest point on the ground on the outside of the building. It’s important that you take into consideration what constitutes a floor and storey and be prepared for your recordings to be more difficult depending on the factors of each building. 

Here are some examples of how to measure buildings from government guidance:  

 

Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criteria-for-being-a-higher-risk-building-during-the-occupation-phase-of-the-new-higher-risk-regime  

Webinar time stamp: 41:58  

 

Q: Which accreditations should a fire risk assessor have to adequately undertake an FRA? Is a 3-day course suitable for someone to undertake an FRA on a 30-storey building?


A: When appointing a fire risk assessor, it’s crucial that they are accredited and experienced. Read our dedicated blog, ‘Your Guide to Appointing a Reliable Fire Safety Consultant’, to find out how to ensure your fire risk assessor is reliable. Pennington Choices’ fire risk assessors are BAFE SP205 accredited, get in touch to gain assurance that your FRA is robust and comprehensive. 

To access the full guidance to appointing a specialist to carry out an FRA, click here.  

 

Q: I have found obtaining a good and relevant contact from the local fire service difficult and was advised to liaise with the high-rise fire group, but this is difficult for conversations and sharing of information.

A: If you’re struggling to get support from your local fire service, send a nice note to the Chief Fire Officer of your local fire service to get a response. Depending on your local fire service, they should have a head of fire protection who you will be able to find contact details through their website. Here are the details for fire contacts in and around Manchester.

It’s important to note that you must always call 999 in an emergency. Never call your local fire station or use social media to report an emergency. 

Webinar time stamp: 39:35  

 

Q: One of my buildings has a stay-put policy. The FRA assessors have suggested putting the fire alarm on silent so as not to confuse tenants. Is this correct?

A: It’s difficult to give a definitive answer. However, a communal fire alarm that raises the alarm could contradict the stay-put policy. Refer to Appendix 6: Fire detection and fire alarm systems for blocks of flats Communal fire detection in Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats here.

 

Q: Could you cover how the BSR regulator is viewing the timing of implementation of all this new law? We are a Category 5 building with very limited resources and will find it impossible to implement all of it immediately. What should our approach be in practice?

A: Your local fire and rescue service will be the primary enforcing body for all requirements under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, including the new legislation (Fire Safety Act 2021, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022). 

We appreciate that this is a lot to grapple with, so it will be worth you considering commissioning a management audit of your approach to fire safety which will assess your baseline position and give you a clear plan of action to address any gaps. We can work with you to undertake a management audit of your fire safety practices, providing you with the assurance that you have the best practices in place to comply with regulations. Get in touch.

 

Q: Please will you expand on the "provide fire door information to residents" How much detail is required and how often does this need to be supplied? Where do I find guidance on this?

A: For all buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, there's a requirement to provide fire safety instructions to tenants as well as fire door information to tenants. For the fire safety instructions, these must: 
  • Be displayed clearly in a communal area. 
  • Be in a format that's easy for tenants to understand. 
  • Include specific things that are prescribed. This includes things like the evacuation strategy for the building which tenants must be well aware of. They must also be aware of exactly what to do and how to report a fire if it occurs.  

The regulations also stipulate when the instructions must be provided. It’s crucial that you ensure the instructions are provided when a new tenant moves into your properties and on an annual basis thereafter. Also, if there are any material changes to the instructions, then you need to provide them at that stage as well.  

For buildings above 11 metres, as well as providing fire safety instructions and fire door information, you also need to make sure that you undertake communal fires or checks at least every three months. The guidance states that this needs to be to ‘best endeavours’, which is for you to define what best endeavours are, but you need to record everything that you do in terms of being able to get access to flat entrance doors.  

Ask yourself: will you decide to do one, two, or three access attempts? How will you best engage with your tenants? Will you write to them first? Will you do more face-to-face engagements to try and get access? Will you give them a selection of appointment dates? Will you be clear that you'll set an appointment date and stick to it? There's a lot of things that you can do to try and meet the criteria of best endeavours. The government has also produced some additional guidance that will help you decide what to do which you can find here:  

Webinar time stamp: 10:53 

 

Q: What is the general consensus on relevant information required to be shared with tenants? Example: fire risk actions are transient by nature, there today, gone tomorrow?

A: The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and Section 156 of the Building Safety Act are very clear on what you should share with tenants and how frequently as outlined in the webinar. 

However, in relation to FRAs, we appreciate that the status of FRA actions will be continually updated. To address this, some of our clients include a summary of FRA actions on their website that tenants can check for their own block, and the status of the action is updated regularly (e.g. monthly). 

 

Q: Could something similar be run for non-residential buildings - teaching and office (we have both in our portfolio)?

A: Thank you for the suggestion; we will consider how to include this either in a future webinar or in a podcast. Register here to be notified when our webinars and podcasts are released.

 

Q: For a flat in an 18m+ residential block, would building work to convert a bathroom into a level access shower wet room require a gateway 2 building control application to the BSR? Are leaseholders expected to do this?

A: Our building safety webinar will cover building control applications and all things building safety.
Register here to be notified when our next building safety webinar is announced.

 

Q: Will there be guidance on FRA professional qualifications to decide who is a competent person?

A: Yes. We are expecting the government to provide further guidance once they enact the part of Section 156 of the Building Safety Act that relates to fire risk assessor competence.

In the meantime, there are resources we would direct you to if you are considering fire risk assessor competence: 

 

Q: Have you any good practice guidance on structural surveys for high rise and what good resident engagement looks like?

A: Thank you for the suggestion, we will consider these as topics for future webinars/podcasts.
Register here to be notified when our webinars are announced.

 

Q: How will these legislative updates impact procurement?

A: The legislation has created a definite shift in the approach to procurement. An important thing to consider is that most organisations are putting it on quality rather than price because every time an FRA is completed, by the time we come to address it again, there are already more changes that need to be recorded. The procurement is about how you embed changes into your FRA programme. You must check with your fire safety experts when you’re doing a specification as fire safety changes can have a significant impact on products. 

Webinar time stamp: 44:31 

Q: How will the legislation affect leaseholders?

A: In residential accommodation, for example, leaseholders are effectively duty holders. Some of the issues around the legislation such as flat front doors, it’s important that you know who has responsibility for ensuring it’s safe and replacing it if it isn’t safe. Several organisations have decided that it’s more cost-effective for them to agree with the leaseholder that they will replace the door, rather than going through the legislative process to get a door installed. 

The complexity of your lease or the lack of information in your lease is a variable as a lot of organisations who have control of the non-domestic areas in residential accommodation will replace the door if they think that will be easier than going through the legislative guidelines as part of a capital replacement programme.  

Webinar time stamp: 45:56 

 

Q: What should we consider when managing agents are involved?

A: Managing agents add another layer of complexity to some of the arrangements. It’s important to make sure that your agreement with those managing agents is clear with details on what they are required to do. There are also legal implications, in terms of the Building Safety Act for the accountable and principal accountable persons to make sure that you know exactly what the managing agents are there to do, that they're clear on the requirements, and also maintaining regular engagement with them. It’s important to make sure you’re holding meetings and getting performance information from the managing agents. 

Webinar time stamp: 47:08  

Q: What is the latest position on PEEPs?

A: There’s been lots of action around PEEPs recently, with a PEEPs consultation and an Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing + (EEIS+) consultation which is still underway. As part of organisations’ resident engagement strategies, it’s important to think about tenants with mobility issues or cognitive impairment. A lot of organisations are focusing more on Person Centred Fire Risk Assessments (PCFRAs) to understand the risk to tenants from a moral duty of care perspective rather than a legal perspective. When you undertake a PCFRA, the outcome might be that you need to do an individual PEEP to identify and record the location of vulnerable tenants in your FRA.

Webinar time stamp: 52:02 
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