NEWS New fire safety legislation and guidance welcomed T
he Door & Hardware Federation (DHF) has welcomed the announcement that cladding of the type used on Grenfell Tower is to be banned from use on any building in England.
The Building etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022 outlaw the use of metal composite material panels with an unmodified polyethylene core (MCM PE) as part of an overhaul of the English building regulations and associated guidance that will come into effect on 1 December 2022. This extends the restriction introduced in 2018 on the use of combustible materials on the external walls of certain buildings over 18 metres. In addition, the Tamworth-based trade association has welcomed The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022,
that come into effect on 23rd January 2023, whereby flat entrance fire doors are subject to annual checks and those in the common parts of High-Risk Residential Buildings (HRRB), require quarterly checks. DHF has been a long-standing advocate of the critical role that fire doors play in saving lives and protecting property and has continued to stress that the use of fire doorsets, correctly installed and with robust fire door maintenance procedures, are a vital part of fire safety. “The new requirement is that annual inspections are undertaken on flat entrance doors and quarterly checks on all fire doors in the common parts. This is the responsible person’s role, and we support this wholeheartedly; this includes, for example, gaps around the doors, as well as
the hardware such as door closers,” explains DHF’s head of commercial operations, Patricia Sowsbery-Stevens. “We believe this is a long time in coming, but there are a number of benefits for our members and the industry,” Patricia continues. “Most importantly, this change will ‘raise the bar’ for safety across the sector. For our members, they are ready to embrace this change as many will be supplying the new complete fire doorsets to the installation companies, the components of which will have been tested together. If this reminder of the tragedy that happened five years ago has taught us anything, it is that third party certified complete doorsets and compartmentation is key to help minimise the spread of fire.”
The most fundamental reform to Building Regulations in decades T
he recent passage of the Building Safety Act is a welcome recognition of the fact that making safe buildings is a highly skilled operation says the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, endorsing the need for more effective regulation and a profound change in culture. The most fundamental reform to Building Regulations for decades, the Act creates a new Building Safety Regulator and introduces a more rigorous regime for the planning, design, construction and operation of higher risk buildings. In many cases, these changes have been needed for years.
It is a tragedy that it took an incident of the scale and horror of the Grenfell Tower fire to produce a fundamental re-evaluation of the industry, but if the sweeping reforms spelt out in the Act can change the culture of the industry, then some good will have been salvaged. Firstly, it is good to see the Act recognise that it takes qualified, competent people to design safe, properly engineered buildings and CIBSE welcomes the focus on competence, particularly of designers and contractors.
It sounds obvious. Of course, those
responsible for designing and building a structure whose failure can cause a significant loss of life should be properly qualified. It is made clear in the Act that clients must satisfy themselves that those they employ are competent, individually and organisationally, to undertake the work that they are being appointed to do. The Act is very likely to increase the focus on Engineering Council registration as evidence of knowledge, skills, experience and behaviour. We anticipate and welcome the introduction of mandatory
CPD requirements and revalidation. Even for those members who are not registered with the Engineering Council, CPD will need to be taken more seriously.
The building control system will also be reformed under the Act. In addition, there will be stronger regulatory powers for construction products with the benefit of a new market surveillance and enforcement regime led by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). The new regime will be
enforced by HSE and is backed by legal sanctions. Regulation can provide only a basic safety net. In the end it is down to the industry to deliver higher quality outputs. The passage of the Building Safety Act marks a welcome beginning of the formal legislative reform of the building safety regime in England; this needs to be reflected in lasting cultural change in the construction industry. Thirty years ago, the Piper Alpha disaster was the trigger for a radical cultural and safety reform in the offshore industry, the legacy of Grenfell must be that it is construction’s Piper Alpha. CIBSE is totally committed to work with its members, their employers, government, including the new Building Safety Regulator, BSI as the National Standards Body and all interested parties to deliver a system of building legislation that delivers safe and sustainable buildings.
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