NEWS New fire safety legislation debated and criticised
IN LATE April, during the discussion by MPs about the fire safety bill, Security Minister James Brokenshire stated that the government was ‘resolute’ in its ‘commitment to ensure’ that Grenfell is ‘never repeated’; but new building safety measures were revealed to have seen height thresholds changed. Last December, building
safety and fire safety bills were announced to ‘learn the lessons’ from Grenfell. While the former would ‘place new and enhanced regulatory regimes for building safety and construction products’, both aimed to strengthen the ‘whole regulatory system’ for building and fire safety. The fire safety bill would ‘hint’ at supporting findings from the Grenfell inquiry’s first phase, with ‘main benefits’ including providing residents with ‘reassurance’ on fire safety and making it clear that building owners and managers know that they are ‘responsible for assessing the risks of external walls and fire doors’. Central elements include a
clarification that the scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [FSO] ‘includes the external walls of the building, including cladding’, as well as ‘fire doors for domestic premises of multiple occupancy’. ‘Relevant enforcement powers’ to hold owners and managers ‘to account’ would be strengthened, while a ‘transitional periods’ for these roles, the responsible person and the fire and rescue services (FRSs) would ‘assist’ in placing infrastructure. In January, more details
were released, including the requirement for building owners to ‘fully consider and mitigate’ the risks of external wall systems and individual flat doors, to ‘make it easier to enforce’ where owners have not removed combustible cladding ‘by complementing the powers under the Housing Act’. The government will also work alongside local authorities and support ‘enforcement options’, where ‘there is no clear plan for
remediation’, as building owners are ‘responsible for ensuring their buildings are safe’. In February, it was revealed to include a requirement for fire doors in all flat blocks to be checked every three months, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) asking building owners if quarterly inspections were ‘feasible’. In late March, the bill was
officially introduced, and will amend the FSO to ‘clarify’ that the responsible person or dutyholder for multi occupant residential buildings ‘must manage and reduce’ the risk of a series of elements. These include the structure and external walls of a building, including cladding, balconies and windows, and entrance doors to individual flats ‘that open into common parts’, with this clarification to ‘empower’ FRSs to take action ‘and hold building owners to account if they are not compliant’. It will also provide a ‘foundation’ for secondary legislation to ‘take forward’ inquiry recommendations. These cover responsibilities of
building owners and managers of high rise and multi occupant residential buildings, including ‘regular’ lift inspections and reporting results to FRSs, and ensuring that evacuation plans ‘are reviewed and regularly updated’, as well as personal evacuation
12 JUNE 2020
www.frmjournal.com
plans being in place for residents ‘whose ability to evacuate may be compromised’. Others include ensuring fire
safety instructions ‘are provided to residents in a form that they can reasonably be expected to understand’, and that individual flat entrance doors ‘where the external walls of the building have unsafe cladding’ comply with current standards. The bill will also give Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick the power to amend lists of qualifying premises that fall within the scope of the FSO ‘by way of secondary legislation’. BAFE reported on the bill’s ‘successful’ second reading in the House of Commons, during which Mr Brokenshire stated that ‘specialist knowledge and the expertise of the fire risk assessor’ would be required to comply’, and that the government was ‘resolute in [its] commitment to ensure that’ fires such as Grenfell ‘are never repeated’.
He added that the bill ‘is a
clarification’ of the FSO, and will ‘apply to all multi-occupied residential buildings regulated by the order. The current ambiguity is leading to inconsistency in operational practice. That is unhelpful at best and, at worst, it means that the full identification and management of fire safety risks is compromised, which can put the lives of people at risk’.
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