Regulations
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — a practical summary
A walkthrough of the duties introduced by the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 for high-rise and multi-occupied residential buildings.
Background
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 implement most of the recommendations made by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report. They came into force on 23 January 2023 and apply to the common parts of buildings containing two or more domestic premises — flats, HMOs converted to flats, and similar.
What's required for all multi-occupied residential buildings
- Provide residents with fire safety instructions in a form they can reasonably be expected to understand.
- Provide information on fire doors — including the reminder that residents should not tamper with them.
- Carry out annual checks of flat entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts (the higher requirement applies above 11m).
Additional duties for buildings over 11m
- Annual flat entrance door checks — a visual inspection looking for damage, missing components or incorrect installation.
- Records of those checks retained and made available on request.
Additional duties for high-rise buildings (over 18m or 7+ storeys)
- Provide the local Fire & Rescue Service with up-to-date floor plans and building information.
- Install secure information boxes accessible to firefighters.
- Install wayfinding signage on each floor.
- Carry out monthly checks of any lifts intended for firefighters and report defects.
What "fire door check" actually means
It's a visual inspection — not a full FDIS-grade fire door inspection — looking for: gaps, damage, missing intumescent or smoke seals, incorrect closing devices, and signs of tampering. We document findings and trigger remedial work where required. For the more rigorous five-key-check used by competent fire door inspectors, that's a separate exercise covered by our fire door inspection service.
Who carries out the duty
The Responsible Person under the RRO 2005 — usually the freeholder or managing agent in a block of flats. The duty cannot be delegated away, but the actual inspection work can be outsourced to a competent contractor (which is where we come in).
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