Post Grenfell Tower Fire, UK fire safety law is (slowly) changing.
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The relaxation of building codes, introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1985, swept away 306 pages of building regulations and replaced them with just 24. Building inspectors stopped being public servants and set up private practices, where they competed on most advantageous (to builder and property owner’s bottom line) interpretation of building codes.
In 2011, David Camerons government set out to slash full half of health and safety regulations that governed all aspects of working environment in which businesses operated.
Health and Safety and Fire Safety in England has long suffered from confusion and lack of clarity when it came to regulations, enforcement and legislative duties of the property owners. This confusion was not helped by presence of Health and Safety Executive that was operating along side Health and Safety Commission (the two merged in 2009).
Lakanal House tower block fire in Lambeth in 2009, where 6 people lost lives resulted in inquest lasting 4 years(2).
The coroner, Judge Frances Kirkham reported, in 2012, that the Building Regulations on Fire Safety were almost impossible to understand and needed to be reviewed (3,4).
This confusion, specifically relating to Fire Safety, has also been clearly identified in in “Focus on Enforcement: Regulatory Reviews: Enforcement of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, published by Department of Business, Innovation and Skills in August 2013 (1).
The Grenfell Tower Fire in June 2017, with loss of 72 lives, brought to stark relief the need for much more proactive approach to regulations and enforcement.
Following the fire, Dame Judith Hackitt (an engineer and a longstanding chair of Health and Safety Executive) has been asked to carry out a review. The result was “Building a Safer Future” report which was presented to Parliament by Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in May 2018. (5)
As a result of the recommendations, and after 3 years of planning, Peter Baker, HSE Director of Building Safety and Construction, have just taken the newly created post of Chief Inspector of Buildings, with the initial remit of establishing a new Building Safety Regulator (6).
The Building Safety Regulator will be established in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by amending the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (7).
Building Safety Bill is currently in works and can be seen in its draft form on government website. Building Safety Bill is specifically concerned with higher-risk buildings, and currently, it is proposed that this definition relates to buildings over 18 meters high (or over 6 stories).
However, reading the Explanatory Notes (8) it is clear other buildings may be brought within the definition in the future. In paragraph 230 there is an example that purpose-built blocks of flats regardless of height may well fall under the Building Safety Bill - the approach to definition of what constitutes a higher - risk building is is based on levels of risk. Indeed, the benchmark spoken about now for many purposes is not 18m but 11m which is fire services access reach from outside.
Specifically, the Building Regulations 2010 (9) Approved Document B: Fire safety, Volume 1 – Dwellings had an amendment added in May 2020 (10), which specifies new regulations for the buildings over 11 meters high: adding of sprinklers inside the dwellings and provision of proscribed signage for firefighters: It does not apply to existing buildings unless there is a substantial alteration to the building or its purpose.
References (if you want to dig deeper):
(2)https://beta.lambeth.gov.uk/about-council/transparency-open-data/lakanal-house-coroner-inquest
3) https://www.ft.com/content/bf6bcbd0-5b35-11e7-9bc8-8055f264aa8b
(4) https://www.towerblocksuk.com/lakanal
(6) https://press.hse.gov.uk/2021/02/16/hse-announces-new-chief-inspector-of-buildings/
(9) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/pdfs/uksi_20102214_en.pdf
