Fire Safety Order consultation issued

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“FSO”) regulates fire-safety in non-domestic premises, including workplaces and the non-domestic parts of blocks of flats. 

The Government has recently issued a consultation suggesting changes to the FSO.  These include:

• Identifying the Responsible Person (“RP”) - Making it easier to identify the RP and making it a legal requirement for the RP to record who they are, the extent of their responsibility under the FSO and provide their contact information.
• Enhance the quality of fire risk assessments – Requiring RPs to record the entirety of their fire risk assessments in light of concerns around the variable quality of current assessments. 
• Distributing information to residents – RPs to provide a Premises Information Box for residents with information including building plans and fire risk assessment.
• Fire doors -  RPs to regularly check fire doors on all residential buildings over 11 metres high (and possibly lower).
• Lifts - Monthly monitoring (and recording) of lifts and other pieces of critical fire safety equipment.
• Wayfinding signage – This to be provided in all residential buildings over 11 metres high.
• Enforcement and sanctions – Providing additional support for enforcing authorities to take action against non-compliance and consulting on whether current sanctions are sufficient.

This consultation is open to the public (available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fire-safety).  The deadline for responses is on 12 October 2020.