Navigating the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in 2024

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order) was introduced on 1^st October 2006 and still stands as the main piece of fire safety legislation in England and Wales. As a constantly evolving piece of legislation, the latest amendment came into force in October 2023 through the Building Safety Act 2022. Serving as the umbrella legislation, the Fire Safety Order also provides the foundation for the Fire Safety Act 2021 and Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.

Keeping up with all relevant fire safety legislation and understanding which regulations apply to you can be challenging. To help you navigate your legal obligations, we’ve created a handy blog to outline the key components of the Fire Safety Order as well as summarising all the supporting legislation in an easily digestible format. For a whistle-stop tour of the regulations, watch our latest fire safety webinar, ‘Fire Safety Legislation: Latest legal obligations and best practice’ on-demand now. 

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

To break down the Fire Safety Order, here’s an outline of its key requirements and what you must do to ensure compliance. This legislation replaced fire certification under the Fire Precautions Act 1971, establishing a general duty for Responsible Persons (RPs) to ensure safety in buildings. Applicable to workplaces, commercial buildings, and non-domestic areas of residential buildings, the RP duties include:

• Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) – Conduct suitable and sufficient FRAs and review them regularly to identify potential fire hazards, recommend preventive measures, and ensure the implementation of key fire safety measures.
• General fire precautions – Complete actions identified in the FRAs, covering practical aspects like escape routes and fire detection, as well as management-related considerations such as staff training and providing information to tenants.

Organisations must document their legal obligations and strategic decisions within their fire safety policy and supporting procedures. This should involve employing qualified assessors to complete sufficient FRAs, determining the type of FRA to undertake, and establishing timelines for actions and reviews.

Read the full legislation here.

Fire Safety Act 2021

The Fire Safety Act came into force on 16^th May 2022, marking the next significant update to fire safety legislation following the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. This amends the Fire Safety Order to provide clarity that your FRAs must include:

• Structure and external walls, including cladding, balconies, and windows.
• All doors between the domestic premises and the common parts (e.g., flat entrance doors)

It’s crucial that any existing FRA is updated to include these components to ensure you’re legally compliant. Find out everything you need to know about the Fire Safety Act 2021 in our blog, ‘Fire Safety Act 2021: Are you the ‘Responsible Person’?’

Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations is the next piece of legislation, which came into force on 23^rd January 2023 and implements most of the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase one report. Similarly, this applies to RPs on all premises under the Fire Safety Order. The regulations introduce requirements for residential building in three categories:

• Buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises – Provide fire safety instructions (evacuation strategy and what to do in the event of a fire) and fire door information to residents.
• Residential buildings above 11m - Undertake communal fire door checks at least every three months and flat entrance door checks at least every 12 months.
• Residential buildings above 18m or at least seven storeys - Install a secure information box and wayfinding signage; keep a record of your external wall systems, floor plans, and a single page building plan; and undertake monthly checks of lifts and firefighting equipment, and provide some of this information to the local fire and rescue service

A key requirement of the legislation is that these checks must be recorded and made available to residents. Read our dedicated blog, ‘A Step-by-Step Guide to the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022’, to gain a comprehensive overview of the regulations.

Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022

As the most recent piece of fire safety legislation, Section 156 of the Building Safety Act amended the Fire Safety Order from 1^st October 2023, bringing about ten key requirements that apply to all premises under the Fire Safety Order. The requirements are:

1. Record FRAs in full.
2. Record the name of the individual and/or organisation undertaking the FRA and share it with residents.
3. Record fire safety arrangements.
4. Share relevant fire safety information with other RPs and residents.
5. Identify other RPs/Accountable Persons (APs) and cooperate with them.
6. Departing RPs must share relevant fire safety information with incoming RPs.
7. Provide residents with easy-to-understand, relevant fire safety information.
8. An increased level of fines for some offences.
9. Strengthened statutory guidance under Article 50 of the Fire Safety Order.
10. Ensure only competent persons undertake or review FRAs (this is not yet a legal requirement but we can expect this to become law in the near future)
    
    

Download your free guide to Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022

Download your free guide to Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 to find out how to update your approach in line with the most recent revisions to the Fire Safety Order.