The Fire Safety Act 2021
The Fire Safety Act 2021 (the Act) came into force in 2022 and makes changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order) - the main law governing fire safety for businesses and premises.
The Act is important because: it requires responsible persons (RPs) for multi-occupied residential buildings to manage and reduce the risk of fire for the structure and external walls of the building, including cladding, balconies and windows, and entrance doors to individual flats that open into common parts.
What the Fire Safety Act 2021 does
Where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the Fire Safety Order now also applies to:
- the building’s structure and external walls (including windows, balconies, cladding, insulation and fixings) and any common parts
- all doors between domestic premises and common parts such as flat entrance doors (or any other relevant door).
This means these parts of the building must also be taken into account when carrying out a fire risk assessment.