New fire safety regulations for England, came into force last month which place new duties on building owners or managers (responsible persons) of high-rise blocks of flats, buildings which are high rise, and those above 11 meters in height. It follows several recommendations that were put forward to the Government following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 1.
For high rise residential buildings
The Responsible Person must provide the Fire and Rescue Service:
- Up to date electronic floor plans and to place a hard copy of, alongside a single page building plan which identifies key firefighting equipment, in a secure information box on site.
- Information about the design and materials of a high-rise building’s external wall system and to inform the Fire and Rescue Service of any material changes to these walls.
- To provide information in relation to the level of risk that the design and materials of the external wall structure gives rise to and any mitigating steps taken.
- Undertake monthly checks on the operation of lifts intended for use by firefighters, and evacuation lifts in their building and check the functionality of other key pieces of firefighting equipment.
- To report any defective lifts or equipment to their local Fire and Rescue Service as soon as possible after detection if the fault cannot be fixed within 24 hours, and to record the outcome of checks and make them available to residents.
- Install and maintain a secure information box in their building containing the name and contact details of the Responsible Person and hard copies of the building floor plans.
- To install signage visible in low light or smoky conditions that identifies flat and floor numbers in the stairwells of relevant buildings.
In residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height
The Responsible Persons will be required to:
- Undertake annual checks of flat entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts.
- In all multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises
The Responsible Persons must:
- Provide relevant fire safety instructions to their residents, which will include instructions on how to report a fire and any other instruction which sets out what a resident must do once a fire has occurred, based on the evacuation strategy for the building.
- Provide residents with information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety.
You can read the Government’s guidance to support these new Regulations here.
Fire Safety Training
We provide Fire Safety training which is a qualification that lasts for three years. You or your team will learn how to manage the fire procedures in the business, identify hazards and keep staff, members, and visitors safe.
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- Understand Fire law, legislation, regulations and guidance
- Understand Fire chemistry
- Understand and implement the Fire Risk Assessment
- Understand and implement the duties of the Fire Marshal
- Implement Staff training to aid in a fire emergency
- Fire prevention and Fire extinguishers
- How to identify the different classifications of Fire
- Practical use of Fire Extinguishers
Visit our training courses page to find out when our next fire safety/ fire marshal course is running.
Key Health and Safety statistics from 2022
Keeping on top of Health and Safety practices and remaining compliant is crucial for the performance and safety of a business. The Health and Safety Executive, published at the end of 2022 key data from 2022. In the HSE’s publication, it reported:
- 123 workers were killed in work related accidents
- 565,000 workers sustained an injury at work
- 61,713 injuries were reported to RIDDOR
- 36.8 million working days lost
- £18.8 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions.
We are here to help
If you would like to speak to a member of our team, or you are considering outsourcing your Health and Safety, Payroll, or HR, you can contact us on 0844 324 5840 or get in touch with us here.
