The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 ' New Year, New Rules

• Published date: 13 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Real Estate and Construction, Construction & Planning, Real Estate
• Law Firm: Herbert Smith Freehills
• Author: Mr William Turnbull, Kate Wilson and Becky Johnson

If you're a regular reader of our blog, you'll know that we've spent considerable time getting to grips with the new building safety regime introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022 (the BSA). This sizeable piece of legislation has introduced a large number of new obligations for those responsible for the safe construction and operation of residential buildings, but it's worth noting that the BSA is only one string in the legislative bow of building safety.

Those involved in real estate, either as a developer, an owner or an occupier, will be familiar with the existing fire safety regime which has been in operation for a number of years, and stems from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order). Following the increased focus on building and fire safety following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Fire Safety Order was further amended by virtue of the Fire Safety Act 2021, which extended the scope of the Fire Safety Order to make it clear that the structure and exterior (and anything attached thereto) of a building containing two or more dwellings also fell within the scope of the Fire Safety Order. And we're about to see a further increase in application of the Fire Safety Order, with supplemental provisions concerning high-rise residential buildings taking effect from 23 January 2023 pursuant to The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (the Regulations).

The explanatory notes to the Regulations state that the intention of the legislation is to make provisions regarding precautions to be taken or observed in relation to the risk to safety of persons from fire in high-rise residential buildings. These take the form of additional obligations which fall on those qualifying as "responsible persons" under the Fire Safety Order, which (broadly speaking) will be the person who has control of the premises, such as the owner of the property, or managing agents appointed to manage the operation of the building, or indeed an employer where part of the building is a workplace Some of the new obligations introduced by the Regulations apply to all buildings, for example, the requirement to display fire safety instructions in a conspicuous part of the building, covering matters such as the evacuation strategy for the building. However other, more stringent, duties only apply to those who are responsible for high-rise buildings.

The definition of a "high-rise residential building" in the Regulations is very much...