Feature Legislation FIA Guide to the UK Fire Safety Industry
Legislation in the
post-Grenfell era
Changes to existing legislation – and, indeed,
the advent of new laws – in the wake of major
fire incidents have occurred through the
course of time. Will Lloyd examines the impact
of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017 on
the UK’s regulatory landscape
FOLLOWING ON from the tragedy at
Grenfell Tower, it’s of no surprise that
the Government is implementing the
recommendations of the Public Inquiry
and changing existing laws, while at the
same time creating new legislation. One
of the very first pieces of legislation to
be brought under the microscope was
the Building Regulations.
The Building (Amendment)
Regulations, which came into force in
December 2018, introduced a new
Regulation 7. This places restrictions on
the combustibility of materials
contained within the external walls of
“relevant buildings” in England.
“Relevant buildings” includes residential
and institutional buildings over 18
metres high. These regulations only
apply to new buildings.
The new restrictions are extensive and
include all materials contained within
the external wall, not just the insulation
and cladding. This would also
encompass materials passing through
the wall, such as ductwork and pipes.
One key issue is that the amendment
has been introduced directly into the
Building Regulations themselves, rather
than just into guidance documents such
as Approved Document B. As a result,
these new restrictions will be enforced
much more rigidly than is the case for
other aspects of fire safety in buildings.
While it’s possible for local authorities
to permit relaxations against the new
restrictions, it would be up to the local
authority concerned as to whether or
not it would be willing to do so.
In order to enable fire engineers to
comprehend and then comply with this
new regulations, the Fire Industry
Association (FIA) produced its FIA
Guide to the Building (Amendment)
Regulations 2018.
Fire Safety Bill
To tackle fire safety in existing buildings,
the Fire Safety Bill – now the Fire Safety
Act 2021 – was introduced in order to
amend the Regulatory Reform (Fire
Safety) Order 2005.
The Act aims to make it clearer as to
where the responsibility for fire safety
lies in buildings containing more than
one home. It clarifies that, for any
building containing two or more sets of
domestic premises, the Fire Safety Order
applies to the building’s structure and
any common parts, including the front
doors of residential areas.
It also extends those references to
structure to take in external walls in the
Fire Safety Order which include “doors
or windows in those walls” and
“anything attached to the exterior of
those walls (including balconies).”
Extending the scope of the Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to
encompass external walls can realise
issues with fire risk assessments as the
external wall will be part of such an
assessment. A new PAS 9980: Fire Risk
Appraisal and Assessment of External
Wall Construction and Cladding of
Existing Blocks of Flats – Code of
Practice is under devolvement.
Such appraisals require particular
skills, knowledge and experience. In
short, it’s a matter for specialists. It’s not
expected that the necessary skills will be
possessed by typical fire risk assessors.
Equally, those skills will not be
present in the domain of all fire
engineers. In reality, this could lead to
two risk assessments for a given
building: one being the fire risk
assessment that’s currently undertaken
and another the appraisal and
assessment of the fire risk with reference
to the external wall construction.
Building Safety Bill
The Building Safety Bill includes a new
‘Accountable Person’ role that will be
responsible for keeping residents safe in
high-rise buildings (designated as those
rising to 18 metres above ground level
or higher). This ‘Accountable Person’
will also have to listen – and respond –
to residents’ concerns and ensure that
their voices are heard.
A new national regulator for building
safety has been created within the
Health and Safety Executive. The
Building Safety Regulator will ensure
that high-rise buildings and those
individuals who reside in them are being
kept safe at all times and will have new
powers to raise and enforce higher
standards of safety and performance
across all buildings.
The regulator will have three main
functions: to oversee safety and
standards within all buildings, directly
assure the safety of higher-risk buildings
and improve the competence of those
individuals responsible for managing
and overseeing building work. At each
stage, it will be clear who’s responsible
for managing the potential risks and
what’s required to move to the next
stage, thereby enabling a ‘golden thread’
of vital information about a specific
building to be gathered over its lifetime.
When residents move into a building
captured under the new set of rules, it
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