Fire safety in 2023: what are the new requirements for risk assessments?

News

On Monday 23 January, the long-anticipated new fire safety duties started coming into force – the first of several pieces of fire and building safety legislation arriving in 2023.

To help facilities managers get up to speed with the latest statutory guidance and industry best practice, IWFM has published a newly updated ‘Fire safety management’ good practice guide (GPG) which we developed in partnership with B2B software company and fire consultancy specialists PlanRadar.

However, as there are many changes for FMs to learn, we asked PlanRadar to help explain one of the key areas affected: fire risk assessments. Please keep reading to learn more.

‘What are the new requirements for fire risk assessments?’ by PlanRadar

‘Fire safety is top of the agenda when it comes to commercial and residential construction. Emerging legislation, such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which came into force in January, continues to pressure developers, owners and facilities managers to address concerns around fire safety assessments and compliance checks. These new stricter, firmer laws are a sign of the times – fire safety cannot and will not be ignored.

‘The Fire Safety Order requires a Responsible Person (RP) to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions they need to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on them by or under the Fire Safety Order.

‘The new regulations aim to create better communication of fire risk information between “Responsible Persons” and residents. The new requirements apply to “Responsible Persons” - typically the building owner of a multi-occupied residential building. For example, they must provide up-to-date electronic building floor plans to local fire services and also include a hard copy of floor plans on-site in a secure information box. They must provide the fire services with information about the design and materials used in a building’s external wall system, including the level of risk and steps taken to mitigate the risk. Clearly, workplace and facilities managers play a critical role in driving fire safety within workplaces and residential buildings and may in some cases be the “Responsible Person”.

‘“Responsible Persons” are also required to check, and repair as needed, the lifts and firefighting equipment operation on a monthly basis. This is where efficient and streamlined facilities management will play an essential role to keep a tamperproof audit trail of the building to show that the correct materials were used at the build stage, that these products were correctly installed, and that they and the building are being correctly operated and maintained. Facilities managers will be responsible for understanding all the fire risk elements of the asset and keeping track of all installation, maintenance, and replacement data.

‘While the emphasis of the legislation is on the necessity for fire risk assessments and what aspects form part of these assessments, there is an initial problem which is likely to be faced by facilities managers. Specifying the actual scope of a fire risk assessment becomes another challenging aspect for facilities managers. The facilities manager can be a Responsible Person, so the definitions for a Responsible Person are wide-ranging. Where the facilities manager is not the “Responsible Person”, the exact scope of the risk assessment must be clearly defined in writing. It will be essential for facilities managers to have a clear and accurate definition of the exact functions they, or any other property manager, have agreed to undertake on behalf of the Responsible Person and any limits they may have.

‘By placing greater emphasis on the Responsible Person (RP), the risk of potential prosecution and heavy fines will no doubt be an effective motivator and should go some way to improving the lackadaisical approach to safety checks – particularly around fire doors. To meet these strict new reporting requirements, businesses now need to be solutions-driven. Opting for digital platforms that can capture and record all the specifications of necessary for the fire risk assessment to be viable and compliant. These will be the first steps before facilities managers can even consider monitoring the evidence of fire assessments, and a full, tamperproof audit trail of all completed work will be instrumental in meeting these new legal requirements. Incorporating a digital-first approach will also help to fill the skills gap left by a lack of fire engineers and eliminate human error throughout fire safety assessments.’

Download IWFM’s fire safety guide and watch our new webinar

To learn about all of the new fire safety requirements, download our updated ‘Fire safety management’ good practice guide.

Providing core good practice and signposting for facilities management professionals, those with Responsible Persons duties, and those acting on behalf of Responsible Persons, this guide sets out the key requirements for managing fire safety in England where the Regulatory (Reform) Fire Safety Order 2005 applies.

The GPG has been updated to include requirements from the Fire Safety Act 2021, the Building Act 2022, and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and outlines the relevant legislation for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

You can also watch our latest webinar on fire safety, which took place today (Wednesday 8 February). Host and Head of Policy at IWFM, Sofie Hooper, discussed one of the key legislative changes coming into force – the Building Safety Act 2022 – with Andrew Moore, the competence lead at the Health and Safety Executive (the new Building Safety Regulator) and Anthony Taylor, Chair of the Building Safety Alliance and a member of the IWFM Life Safety Working Group. The recording will be available if you visit the Insight section of our website from Friday 10 February.