Kicking off 2023: the year of building and fire safety implementation post-Grenfell

News

2023 will be a busy year for fire and building safety, with several pieces of legislation coming into force through their secondary legislation.

On Wednesday 8 February, we will discuss 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. Full details TBC.

Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022

23 January saw the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 come into force, which flow from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The regulations put duties on the responsible person in relation to certain information provisions to residents and the fire and rescue authorities, and maintenance checks. A range of residential buildings are covered, as demonstrated by the NFCC illustration below.

More information about the Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool (FRAPT) and the specific duties for the RP can be found in this freely available summary by Martin Ryan, one of our Life Safety Working Group members.

More extensive fire safety management information can be found in our newly published Fire safety management good practice guidance, available free to IWFM members.

Draft Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) Regulations 2023 – implementing the Building Safety Act 2022

Also on 23 January, the Government laid the Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) Regulations 2023 in Parliament for debate and approval by both Houses of Parliament, before they can become law.

The regulations set out the high-level information (the key building information) that the principal accountable person (the person responsible for the repair of the structure and exterior of the building) will have to provide to the Building Safety Regulator, it will not contain all the information that will be required in the golden thread. The regulations also clarify the parts of a higher-risk building for which accountable persons are responsible when there are multiple accountable persons.  

The key building information will enable the Building Safety Regulator to: analyse trends and risks in high-rise residential buildings; prioritise the assessment of the fire and structural safety in existing high-rise residential buildings and so effectively tranche the call-in and assessment of safety case reports; identify similar buildings or systems if an issue emerges.

These are the second set of regulations (following the scope regulations which were laid in December) related to the new regime for building safety to be laid, with further regulations to follow in the future.

More information  

A copy of the regulations can be found here and the associated explanatory memorandum can be found here. The Government also published their response to the consultation on the regulations, which can be found here.

Building Safety Regulator Conference 2023

The Building Safety Regulator is also organising their inaugural conference 2023 in London on 22 March 2023. This is a must attend (free) conference for everyone in the industry dedicated to keeping people and buildings safe, to hear from the new Regulator about the important changes that will come into effect from April 2023. You will have the opportunity to ask the regulator questions during our webinar at 12pm on 8 February.

You can express your interest to attend the regulator’s conference here.