IMPORTANT NEW LEGISLATION IN FORCE FROM 23 JANUARY 2023
If you are the responsible person or the owner of a building that contains two or more residential units, this change in legislation affects you. This page contains advice and guidance to support you in your duties as the responsible person and will assist you in achieving compliance of the legislation.
The Fire Safety Act 2021 (the Act) received Royal Assent on 29 April 2021 and commenced on 16 May 2022. The Act amends the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order).
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service welcomes the commencement of the Fire Safety Act in England and Wales, and the Regulations in England, as important steps forward in strengthening the Fire Safety Order and improving fire safety.
The Act clarifies that responsible persons for multi-occupied residential buildings must manage and reduce the risk of fire for the structure and external walls of the building, including cladding, balconies and windows, and entrance doors to individual flats that open into common parts.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (the Regulations) have been introduced as an important step towards implementing the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report. The Regulations are being introduced under Article 24 of the Fire Safety Order and will come into force on 23 January 2023.
The Regulations apply to England only. The Regulations can be found at on the UK Government website.
You can find out more in our FAQs and where to go for further information.
These new regulations introduce additional requirements on responsible persons, aimed at identifying and communicating fire risk information to those who need to know about the risk. This includes providing fire risk information regarding evacuation procedures to residents in a format they will understand.
There is also a new requirement for the responsible persons to electronically provide the Fire and Rescue Service with up to date risk information that will assist them in both planning and responding to an operational incident. This includes providing floor plans, information on external wall construction (when appropriate) and defective critical equipment such as fire lifts (if they are likely to be defective for more than 24 hours).
To facilitate this new requirement we ask responsible persons to use the forms below to provide this critical information.
Submitting Information
Hard copy of plans
In addition to this electronic provision of risk information, the responsible persons in high rise residential blocks will need to provide a hard copy of floor plans and store them in a Secure Information Box on site.
This secure box will be accessed by the FRS on arrival at an incident and is a backup to the electronic information provided.
