Amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Following the Fire Safety Consultation published on 17 March 2021, the Government has set out its legislative proposals to strengthen the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO). These proposals are anticipated to drive fire safety improvements for regulated premises where people live, stay or work but first a reminder of the impact of the FSO.
Background
The FSO is the fire safety legislation in England and Wales. The primary objective is to regulate premises and imposes responsibilities and obligations on those individuals who are subject to the FSO (the "Responsible Person "). The Responsible Person is a legally created entity, as defined in Article 3 of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The Responsible Person has a duty to keep people safe and is required to carry out an assessment of the fire risks to people on the premises or within its vicinity (these are described as ‘relevant persons’ in the FSO). The fire risk assessment helps identify the fire safety precautions the Responsible Person must take to comply with the Fire Safety Order.
The Fire Safety Order applies to all workplaces and commercial buildings, non-domestic parts of multi-occupied residential buildings. The recent enactment of the Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified the impact of the FSO and ensures that balconies, structures, external walls and flat front doors are included within the FSO.
Proposals
Under the Government proposals the Responsible Person duty is expanded and they will now be required to carry out the following in exercise of their duty: -
Record their fire risk assessment in full including any fire safety arrangements;
Record the identity of any person appointed by the Responsible Person to assist them to make or review an assessment under Article 9 and ensuring such person is competent;
Take reasonable steps to ascertain whether there are any other Responsible Persons that share or have duties in respect of the premises;
Maintain records including an address in the United Kingdom at which they, or someone acting on their behalf, will accept notices and other documents; identifying the part of the premises for which they consider themselves to be a Responsible Person;
When ceasing to be a Responsible Person and/or another person becomes the Responsible Person, the outgoing Responsible Person must give the Responsible Person any relevant fire safety information they hold. This provision contains a regulation making power enabling the Secretary of State to extend the list of relevant fire safety information that must be provided and to include details of the times when, and the form in which, all of the information must be provided.
Responsible Persons for buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises must also provide relevant and comprehensible information in relation to relevant fire safety matters to residents and must keep records of relevant fire safety matters in order to do so.
For higher-risk domestic premises (a building which is at least 18 metres in height or has at least 7 storeys and contains at least 2 residential units), there is an additional obligation on the Responsible Person to ascertain if there is an Accountable Person in relation to the premises and co-operate with them to enable them to carry out their duties under the Building Safety Bill ( for further information check out the article by my colleague Fiona regarding the Golden Thread of information, see here for link).
Enforcement
Further, the Government proposals will ensure greater transparency of regulatory activities, encourage greater compliance with FSO requirements and extend the power of enforcement available to the courts as follows:
Amending Article 50 of the FSO to allow any proof of the Responsible Person's failure to follow relevant Article 50 guidance to be used as evidence of a breach or conversely proof that it was followed may be used to establish compliance, and,
Increasing the level of fines available to the maximum level (unlimited), for the offences of impersonating a fire safety inspector and non-compliance with requirements imposed by an inspector and in relation to the installation of luminous tube signs.
Next Steps
It is anticipated that the Government's proposals will be in force within 6 to 12 months from enactment of legislation and therefore it is imperative that those persons under a duty to ensure their premises are safe incorporate these amendments within their fire risk assessment to establish compliance.
This blog is part of a series published by Howard Kennedy LLP on the Building Safety Bill. For more information please contact Chris Duffy, Sharon Stark or Stuart Duffy. For other blogs on the Bill, please click here.
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