Understanding the Fire Safety Act 2021

The Fire Safety Act 2021 holds those in control of premises accountable for managing fire safety and mitigating risks, including installing and maintaining construction site fire safety equipment, adapting fire safety plans and more. Here, we break down the implications the Act has on construction sites and their workers, and examine the responsibilities of responsible persons.

How did the Fire Safety Act 2021 come about?

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017, Dame Judith Hackitt conducted an independent review into building regulations and fire safety. This review led to the creation of the Fire Safety Bill, which was introduced in March 2020 and, in April 2021, made law as the Fire Safety Act 2021. Despite being a relatively short piece of legislation, the Fire Safety Act regulations impose several implications on fire safety during construction, with the intention of improving fire safety in multi-occupancy domestic premises.

What does this mean for construction sites?

Following a key recommendation in the Hackitt review, new planning requirements on fire safety (known as ‘planning gateway one’) have come into force, ensuring that high-rise developments will consider fire safety at even the earliest stages of planning. Potential details to cover to ensure overall requirements are met might include a construction site fire safety plan, and access for fire engines.

Following on from this, the Fire Safety Act 2021 clarifies that the duty holder or building owner is the person responsible for reducing the risk of fires in multi-occupancy domestic buildings. This responsible person must now also manage 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 up into communal areas.

While the duty holder or building owner may not always be present on the construction site, part of their risk-management responsibility means nominating competent workers to implement those measures and ensure the number of people, their training and the construction site fire safety equipment available to them are in good working order and fit for purpose. Learn more about competency in fire safety.

The introduction of the Fire Safety Act 2021 lays the groundwork for further responsible person reforms regarding fire safety in construction, including:

• Regular lift inspections and reporting to fire and rescue services
• Review of evacuation plans with frequent updates
• Providing fire safety instructions to residents in a reasonable form they can understand

For more information on navigating the ever-evolving risk of fire safety in construction, refer to our guide.

What is the Building Safety Bill?

As with the Fire Safety Act 2021, the introduction of the Building Safety Bill was a response to the fire of Grenfell Tower. Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety concluded that the existing building safety regime was not fit for purpose, with unclear roles and responsibilities, patchy competence and insufficient regulatory oversight. To tackle these shortcomings, the Bill is looking to introduce a wide range of measures designed to improve standards and the approach of the construction industry towards building safety. These include:

• New Building Safety Regulator with approval, enforcement and prosecutorial powers
• Mandatory reporting of structural and fire safety occurrences
• Sanctions of up to two years in prison and unlimited fines
• Creation of new roles and new general duties on duty holders
• Gateway points to manage safety and risk

Together, the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Building Safety Bill (anticipated to be passed into law in 2023), will form a double-pronged approach to improving fire safety during construction and beyond. Learn more about the Fire Safety Act 2021 or get the latest update on the Building Safety Bill.