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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-england-regulations-2022/fact-sheet-overview

Regulations made under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

This fact sheet is not guidance and should not be read as such. It is intended to provide information about the regulations to residents and other interested parties. Alongside this overarching factsheet, individual factsheets cover each of the specific areas covered by the regulations.

We are introducing regulations under article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order) to implement the majority of those recommendations made to government in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report which require a change in the law.

These regulations will make it a requirement in law for responsible persons of high-rise blocks of flats to provide information to Fire and Rescue Services to assist them to plan and, if needed, provide an effective operational response. Also, the regulations will require responsible persons in multi-occupied residential buildings which are high-rise buildings[footnote 1], as well as those above 11 metres in height, to provide additional safety measures. In all multi-occupied residential buildings, the regulations require responsible persons to provide residents with fire safety instructions and information on the importance of fire doors. The regulations apply to existing buildings, and requirements for new buildings may be different.

In high-rise residential buildings, responsible persons will be required to:

In residential buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height, responsible persons will be required to:

In all multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises[footnote 2], responsible persons will be required to:

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 are being laid under article 24 of the Fire Safety Order 2005. Regulations made under article 24 can impose requirements on responsible persons or others, including building owners and building managers, in relation to mitigating the risk to residents for specific premises.

The Fire Safety Order applies to all premises including workplaces and the common parts of all multi-occupied residential buildings. It already requires responsible persons where necessary to take certain steps to ensure the safety of residents.

Following the Grenfell Tower Fire, the Government established in August 2017 the Independent Grenfell Tower Inquiry. The Inquiry published its first Phase report in October 2019. This report made several recommendations, which the Government, in principle, accepted on the day it was published.

Some of these recommendations were directed towards government and required a change in the law to implement. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 will implement most of these recommendations.

Following the Home Office’s call for evidence in response to the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, the Home Office launched the Fire Safety Consultation which ran from 20 July to 12 October 2020. Section 2 of the Fire Safety Consultation outlined the intention to lay regulations under article 24 of the Fire Safety Order to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations which required a change in the law. The Consultation also included proposals to implement the recommendations in a practical way.

The Government’s response to the Fire Safety Consultation was published on the 17 March 2021 which demonstrated that there was broad support for these proposals. Following the commencement of the Fire Safety Act 2021 which clarifies that the Fire Safety Order applies to a buildings structure, external walls and any common parts of premises including all flat entrance doors for buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises, we will proceed with these regulations to implement the Inquiry recommendations.

The regulations sit alongside the Building Safety Act amendments to the Fire Safety Order, and the Government’s overhaul of supporting guidance issued under the Fire Safety Order aim to improve fire safety outcomes designed to protect the public from the risk of fire, by better supporting compliance and effective enforcement in all regulated premises.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply in England only.

It is intended that these regulations will come into force on 23 January 2023.

Guidance, issued under article 50 of the Fire Safety Order, will be published later in 2022. Whilst responsible persons are encouraged to work towards compliance, responsible persons are recommended not to begin submitting electronic information to their local fire and rescue service until closer to the date of commencement.

The responsible person is the person who is responsible for the safety of themselves and others who use a regulated premises.

This is normally a building owner, or in residential properties, any other person in control of the premises. The responsible person is the person on whom most of the duties set out in the Fire Safety Order are imposed.

Further information can be found here:

Responsible Person and Duty Holder: fire safety responsibilities - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Inquiry recommendations referred mostly to high-rise buildings. 18 metres (or at least seven storeys) is the height which has, in England, been commonly used to define a high-rise building. Building standards, for example, become more restrictive at this height and fire-fighting tactics change.

Limiting those parts of the regulations which require responsible persons to share information about their building electronically to Fire and Rescue Services ensures that the Fire Service has the information it needs to respond to potentially the most complex fires.

Regardless of the height of the residential building, residents of all blocks of flats and other multi-occupied residential buildings with common parts will be given fire safety instructions as well as information on the importance of looking after fire doors, to help make them feel safer in their own homes.

A full impact assessment has been produced and has been published alongside these factsheets. Any costs that arise from these regulations should result from the new activity to improve a building’s overall fire safety and from purchasing new items (such as an information box or signage for the building).

The two Inquiry recommendations on PEEPs will not be implemented through these Regulations. The Government ran a separate consultation on the issue of PEEPs between 8 June and 19 July 2021 and the response to this consultation is available at Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The PEEPs consultation has made clear the substantial difficulties of mandating PEEPs in high-rise residential buildings. We recognise that this is an important issue and so the government is consulting on an alternative solution. For further details on this consultation please follow this link.

The Inquiry recommendation on evacuation plans has a clear link with the issue of PEEPs and so we intend to deal with evacuation from high-rise, and other residential buildings, as a single issue.

Responsible persons will be required to provide residents with fire safety instructions which set out how they should respond to a fire and a reminder of their building’s existing evacuation strategy.

We intend that the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 will come into force on 23 January 2023 Guidance, issued under Article 50 of the Fire Safety Order, to support responsible persons with complying with the regulations will be published later in 2022 ahead of commencement.

We recognise that the new duties imposed by the regulations will take responsible persons time to implement and so we feel that the gap between the laying of the regulations and their commencement is reasonable.

These regulations, where they legislate to require responsible persons to provide information to fire and rescue services focus only on high-rise residential buildings. This approach is a proportionate one which implements the majority of the Phase 1 recommendations, which require a change in the law, in a practical way.

Where we have legislated to introduce new duties on responsible persons in medium and low-rise buildings we have done so where there is a clear (as with fire doors) benefit to fire safety in these buildings.

These regulations form part of a package of sensible, risk mitigating fire safety measures.

As defined in The Fire Safety (England) Regulations as a building at least 18 metres in height or at least seven storeys. ↩

The regulations are not intended to capture maisonettes, where two flats exist within a converted house and there are no “common parts” through which an individual would evacuate in the event of a fire. ↩

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