Fire Safety Bill (England and Wales)

I posted before about the Fire Safety Bill. The current version is here.

The Queen’s Speech included a commitment to bring forward a Fire Safety Bill, its purpose being to clarify that the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order) applies to external walls (including cladding, balconies and windows) and individual flat entrance doors in multi-occupied residential buildings.

This is relevant to building owners, leaseholders or managers of multi-occupied residential buildings who are likely to be the responsible persons and who need to ensure that they have assessed the fire safety risks of the premises for which they are responsible, and have taken the necessary fire precautions as a result of that assessment.

The Fire Safety Bill also affirms Fire and Rescue Authorities have the relevant enforcement powers to hold owners or managers to account.

It complements existing powers local authorities have to take enforcement action against building owners and managers under the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) provided for in the Housing Act 2004 and the Building (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/1230) which came into force on 21 December 2018 and banned the use of combustible materials within the external walls, and certain attachments to the external walls, of any new building at least 18 metres in height where:

* the building contains at least one dwelling;

* the building contains certain residential accommodation for the treatment, care or maintenance of persons; and

* the building contains certain rooms used for residential purposes, including student accommodation and school dormitories.

Including such a building created by a material change of use.

The Fire Safety Bill supports the Government’s intended action to introduce secondary legislation to implement the specific recommendations made in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase One Report. The recommendations called for new legal duties on “building owners or managers of high-rise buildings” in relation to inspection and information sharing with the local Fire and Rescue Service. This includes the requirement for building owners or managers to share information with their local Fire and Rescue Service about the design of its external walls and details of the materials from which they are constructed and to undertake regular inspections of individual flat entrance doors.

The Fire Safety Bill is now ready for Royal Assent today 29 April.

When published, it will be consolidated into the existing 2005 Fire Safety Order and added to Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Checklists (England, Wales, and England & Wales).

The secondary legislation is likely to be of interest.

Building Safety (England)

On 2nd April, the government gave an update on its progress to overhaul England’s building and fire safety regimes, following the catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire in London.

The government’s update on building safety is here. Some key points –

(1) the new Building Safety Regulator (that is being established in shadow form by the Health and Safety Executive – I Blog posted about this at the time of announcement in January 2020) will be responsible for implementing and enforcing a more stringent regulatory regime for higher risk buildings, as well as providing wider and stronger oversight of safety and performance across all buildings, and increasing the competence of those working on building safety

(2) the new regulator will be responsible for all major regulatory decisions made at key points during the design, construction, occupation and refurbishment stages of buildings in scope

(3) the government will establish a national construction products regulatory role to strengthen the oversight of the existing regulatory regime governing construction products

(note – construction products in the UK are presently regulated by retained EU Law – see the Brexit Consolidated Law List in Subscribers’ tailored Cardinal Environment EHS Legislation Registers & Law Checklists systems)

(4) the government has confirmed ACM PE (a cladding material used at Grenfell Tower) presents an unparalleled risk and should be remediated on all buildings – the update also state consolidated advice is clear that other cladding materials should also be assessed for safety and remediated where found to be unsafe –

External wall systems on high-rise buildings using Class C or D HPL panels are unsafe and should be removed as they do not comply with building regulations.

(5) in May 2020, the government will publish an update to Approved Document B that will include increased fire safety measures in high-rise residential buildings, including the provision of sprinkler systems and consistent signage in all new high-rise blocks of flats over 11 metres tall

(Subscribers to Cardinal Environment tailored EHS Legislation Registers & Law Checklists who have Approved Document B loaded, will have this updated)

(6) the government will work with the National Fire Chiefs Council on a series of tests of new evacuation alert systems technology, with a view to including guidance in a later update to Approved Document B

(7) the government has announced measures to support construction professionals who have experienced challenges in accessing adequate Professional Indemnity Insurance and support for fire engineers who are advising on the safety of high-rise and other complex buildings

Announcements already made include –

(a) naming building owners who have been slow to act in removing unsafe ACM cladding

(b) introducing the Fire Safety Bill as part of delivery of the recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry’s Phase One report – the Bill is not yet progressed

(c) legislating for the new reforms through the Building Safety Bill – this Bill is also not progressed

A blog post made at the time covers their First Reading at UK Parliament.

Building & Fire Safety (England & Wales)

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick gave a ministerial statement on Building and Fire Safety in the House of Commons today (20th Jan).

(1) a new Building Safety Regulator will be at the heart of a new regime – established as part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – this will exist in shadow form immediately, ahead of it being fully established, following legislation (see the Queen’s Speech blog post I wrote) – Dame Judith Hackitt will chair a Board to oversee the transition,

(2) from next month building owners will be named where remediation has not started to remove unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding from their buildings,

(3) the government is consulting on extending the ban on combustible materials to buildings below 18 metres and views will be sought on how risks are assessed within existing buildings to inform future policy – here,

Further details are here.

20 Jan updated Building Safety Guidance is here.

(4) the government has issued a call for evidence on prioritisation of Fire risks – here – the outcome of this will assist the review of Fire Safety legislation.

Queens Speech (UK)

Exit day is 31st January 2020 – DExEU government department will close on that day

Of relevance (for this Blog) in the Queen’s Speech today are :

(1) the Environment Bill – this will be brought back with alterations

(2) a new Fire safety and Building safety bill or bills

(3) the withdrawal agreement bill and associated Brexit bills

Please look out for further Blog posts when the bill text is published.

Building Safety (England)

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government made a statement in the House of Commons this morning – this is the video of the statement – here.

Accompanying this are the following announcements –

(1) sprinkler review for high rise homes – here

(2) consultation on sprinklers and fire safety measures in new high rise blocks of flats – here

(3) consultation outcome of the Technical Review (call for evidence) of Approved Document B of the Building Regulations – here

Please read these announcements carefully.

Building Safety (UK)

I wrote quite some time ago, about HMG review of cladding and fire safety aspects following the Grenfell Tower Fire.

Yesterday (18th July) HMG made the following written statement –

Building safety update

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (James Brokenshire) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I wish to update the House before the Summer recess on building safety, including: my expectations of building owners on the removal of unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding; the steps this Government is taking on the remediation of existing buildings; wider updates on testing programmes; and early action on delivering the recommendations to reform the building safety regulatory system.

My priority is that residents should be safe – and feel safe – in their homes. All buildings with ACM cladding have had interim safety measures put in place as soon as they have been identified, and Fire and Rescue Services are conducting inspections to ensure those measures remain in place.

However, too many people have been living in fear for too long because of the slow progress being made by those responsible for making their buildings permanently safe. While many building owners have rightly taken action, there are still a number of residential buildings across the public and private sectors with unsafe ACM cladding where remediation has not yet started.

I am clear that this situation is unacceptable. That is why I want to set out my expectations on the timing of remediation of buildings with unsafe ACM cladding. Given the £600 million of funding this Government has made available, there is no further excuse for delay.

In the social sector, other than a small handful of exceptional cases, remediation will be completed by the end of the year.

In the private sector, progress has been slower, which is why this Government took action by announcing a £200 million fund. By the end of December 2019, any building in the private sector which I have not been assured is permanently safe should have a clear commitment to remediation, with a start and finish date agreed. Where no such safety assurance or plan has been brought forward by the end of December, building owners can expect enforcement action to be taken. My expectation is that, other than in exceptional circumstances, building owners should complete remediation within six months of agreeing a plan – by June 2020.

I acknowledge that this Government also has a role to play in ensuring that remediation is undertaken. That is why, on 9 May I announced that this Government was introducing a new £200 million fund to unblock progress in remediating private sector high-rise residential buildings. My Department has been in contact with relevant building owners or managers to enable them to start preparatory work on an application to the fund. My Department will today publish a prospectus setting out the scope and eligibility criteria for the fund, how to apply and the timetable for submitting applications.

To help facilitate remediation, I would like to clarify the planning treatment of ACM cladding replacement works. Planning permission may not be required where the external appearance of a building is not materially altered by replacement cladding. Approval for recladding is only needed if the work amounts to “development” within the meaning of section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or is required within the terms of a previous planning permission.

Local planning authorities should take a proportionate approach and work proactively with building owners to identify whether planning approval is necessary. I strongly encourage developers to engage with the local planning authority at the earliest opportunity during development of their remediation plans.

Where a planning application is considered necessary, pre-application engagement can help to resolve any issues and assist local planning authorities in issuing timely decisions. Local planning authorities should also take a proportionate approach to the amount of information needed to support an application and consider carefully whether charging a fee for their early advice is appropriate in these cases. Decisions on applications should be made as quickly as possible and can be made as soon as the time limit for consultation has expired. Building owners would also need to ensure that the work complies with Building Regulations and that they obtain the necessary approval.

My Department has also commenced a data collection exercise which will enable the Department to build a complete picture of external wall systems in use on high rise residential buildings. We have asked local authorities and housing associations to identify external wall materials and insulation on all high-rise residential buildings 18 metres and over.

On 11 July a fire test in accordance with British Standard 8414 was carried out at the laboratories of the Fire Protection Association. This test was commissioned by my Department on the advice of the Independent Expert Advisory Panel and involved a cladding system consisting of a Class B, fire retardant, high pressure laminate rainscreen with a non-combustible rock fibre insulation. This is part of an ongoing, systematic investigation into the fire risks from non-ACM cladding systems. I can confirm that this system met the relevant pass criteria and that the Expert Panel are satisfied that this specific system does not present a risk to public safety. Detailed advice from the Expert Panel on high pressure laminate cladding systems is also being published by my Department today.

My Department has also continued its investigations into fire doors. We have already made available the results of a sample of Glass-Reinforced Plastic composite fire doors tested by my Department. Following the advice of the Expert Panel, Government expanded the testing to include timber fire doors. Today I am making available the results from the testing of a sample of timber fire doors from 25 manufacturers. I am pleased to report that all have succeeded in meeting the required 30-minute fire performance standard. The sample included a range of glazed and un-glazed fire doors with a variety of hardware and were tested on both sides of the door. The summary results of the timber fire door tests to inform building risk assessments are now available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fire-door-investigation

As a result of our tests, the Expert Panel have concluded that they do not believe there is a performance concern with timber fire doors across industry, where they are purchased directly from the manufacturer and produced to specification.

It is important to be clear that, although the results of our testing provide assurances for residents who have concerns about their fire doors, it is for building owners to assure themselves that the fire doors they install are fit for purpose and have the required documentation and certification. Guidance for building owners who are replacing flat front entrance doors can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-for-building-owners-on-assurance-and-replacing-of-flat-entrance-fire-doors

Since 2007, building regulations guidance has stated that all new blocks of flats over 30 metres should have sprinklers. In 2013, the Department wrote to all local authorities and housing associations, asking them to consider a Coroner’s Report recommendation that they should consider retro-fitting sprinklers in existing residential buildings over 30 metres.

The Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap was abolished on 29th October 2018, giving freedom to local authorities to help finance unforeseen capital repairs programmes, such as retro-fitting sprinklers, as well as build new homes. It is for building owners to seek professional advice and decide whether to fit sprinklers, on the basis of their assessment of the particular risk faced in their buildings.

At the heart of the regulatory reform is our intention to establish a regulator to oversee the safety and performance of all buildings. We are working closely with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who are sharing their considerable regulatory experience and expertise to help us shape the functions of the new regulator, alongside other members of our Joint Regulators Group. My Department is working with partners to develop proposals to allow the regulatory functions to exist prior to the new legislative regime being in place. We are similarly seeking the advice and input of the HSE on implementing the new regime following legislation.

This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: HCWS1757

High Rise Tower Fire Checks (UK)

Update 29th August : Independent fire specialists order different fire tests – reported in Inside Housing here. 

Update 6th July : new fire tests are ordered on cladding. So far, tests have covered only the plastic “core” on panels similar to those used on Grenfell Tower (and all but one fire test was a failure – 190 out of 191 samples). The new process will subject a demonstration wall to a “severe fire in a flat breaking out of a window” and aim to establish whether it will then spread up the outside wall. It will also assess how different types of aluminium composite material (ACM) panels behave with different types of insulation in a fire, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said.

Update 22nd June : DCLG letter is issued to local authorities and housing authorities of immediate safety tests to be undertaken should the cladding material fail Fire tests – this letter is here. 

Update 16th June : a public inquiry is announced amid calls for an inquest to be held into the deaths. Scotland Yard will also conduct a criminal investigation. 

A devastating fire started last night in a high rise tower block in Kensington, West London – many of you will be watching the news reels that are covering this.

Nick Hurd, appointed yesterday as Police and Fire Minister, has announced immediate fire safety checks of similar high rise blocks. The scope of these checks is not presently clear. The instruction appears to be to Local Authorities. 

Part B of the Building Regulations 2010 (fire safety) is in the spotlight and has been with the government for review since 2016, following a devasting fire in another tower bloc in 2009 and that coroner’s report issued in 2013. The current Part B documents are here. 

Please remember that employers’ obligations vis a vis Fire Safety are consolidated by the Fire Safety Order (the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005), and its equivalent in Scotland and Northern Ireland, these are in EHS Legislation Register systems, in the various Fire Safety Registers. The Building Regulations are found in ENV Energy. I will add the Part B documents to the OHS Fire Registers for completeness.

The Building Regulations are in the spotlight because of eye witness observations of the fast speed of fire spread. 

Concerns over external cladding were raised in the UK as early as 1999, here. 

This post will be updated, as and when further regulatory information is available. 

Ready-Made Garment Industry (Bangladesh)

I posted in December 2013 on new standards for the ready-made garment industry.

International Labour Organisation (ILO) resources in response to the Rana Plaza tragedy are here.

“On 24 April 2013, the garment factory building “Rana Plaza” collapsed, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring 2,500. One year after the global garment industry’s worst-ever industrial accident, the ILO together with the government of Bangladesh, employers, trade unions and the international community are working together to make sure it never happens again.”

The ILO posted April 3rd 2014 clarifying its role – this post is here.

Bangladesh Ready-Made Garment Industry Standards

I posted earlier on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) initiative. This post is here.

Three groups are developing fire safety standards – the Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh, which is led by mostly European retailers; the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, led by Wal-Mart Stores and Gap; and the government’s own National Tripartite Action Plan.

In November 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the International Labour Organization (ILO), technical experts from the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) came to agreement on a common, minimum criterion for fire and structural inspection safety standards, pending a few final modifications.

Information on the contribution of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety is here.

Per the review in the Wall Street Journal – “Among other things, it mandates that factory inspections must be carried out by at least two qualified inspectors with a minimum experience of five years each and a combined experience of at least 20 years. It details a “load map” that sets out the maximum number of machines allowed in a floor area. It also requires factories to install fire doors to prevent smoke entering stairwells in case of a fire, and prescribes a maximum distance of 25 meters (about 82 feet) between exits.”

Also per the Wall Street Journal – “The European accord is inspecting more than 1,600 factories, while the U.S. alliance is covering roughly 600 factories that supply its members. Bangladesh has approximately 5,000 garment factories, according to the national garment manufacturers’ association.”

Hydrocarbon Tank Cleaning Fireball

A UK company was prosecuted and heavily fined (29th October) after serious injuries were caused by safety failings in the method used by the company to clean large fuel bowsers (tanks) deployed in the aviation industry.

It seems the cleaning method required persons to climb through a manhole cover on top of six-metre-long 20,000 litre aviation fuel tanks to clean the inside by applying a highly flammable solvent to a cloth and then wiping down the walls, whilst holding a lamp.

In this instance, since the lamp inside the tank was getting hot, the person inside the tank carrying out the cleaning pulled the plug from its socket. As he did this, a spark caused the fumes to ignite and he was surrounded by flames, which were witnessed shooting into the air up to two meters above the manhole cover. The fire was so hot that it melted the visor on his mask and his protective suit, so that only the elastic from the collar and cuffs were left.

The HSE press release states the person suffered multiple burns over most of his body, including his arms, legs and face; his hair and eyebrows were burnt off; and his lips badly burnt. He was in hospital for three months and is now almost totally paralysed.

The investigation by Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the method of cleaning the fuel tanks with a highly flammable solvent had been used since 2007 (the incident took place in 2011), but the company had failed to carry out any kind of risk assessment. In addition, there was no supervision of workers or monitoring of the fumes inside the tank, and the masks and lighting provided were entirely unsuitable. Workers also had to take it in turns to clean each tank as the build-up of fumes from the solvent made them feel sick.

The day after the incident, the company decided it did not need to use a solvent to clean the fuel tank and instead used soapy water.

Information on preventing workplace fires and explosions is available at www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion.