Meet the fire safety duties for a high-rise residential building

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023. They add duties to those in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and they put into law most of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 1 recommendations that needed a change in the law.

Check whether the building is high-rise

Install a secure information box

The box is usually locked with a key that is protected against copying and carried on fire service appliances. The service may accept another means of securing it, so agree that with them first.

You do not have to put personal or sensitive information about residents in the box.

Prepare plans and send them to the fire service

Ask the service which file format and email address it uses; the National Fire Chiefs Council can signpost you to it. You do not need to send paper copies.

Record the external walls

You must prepare a record of the design of the external walls and the materials they are built from. It must include the level of risk that your fire risk assessment found and any mitigating steps you have taken, such as a waking watch or sprinklers. Revise it after any significant change to the walls, and keep it high-level so firefighters can use it to plan their response.

Where you do not hold all the information, send the fire service what you have while you update your fire risk assessment, then send the updated record. The Home Office publishes a template. For traditional masonry walls with no risk of external fire spread, a short statement to that effect is enough.

Put up wayfinding signs

Check lifts and firefighting equipment every month

Evacuation alert systems need only a visual check that the control and indicating equipment is undamaged; the system itself is tested at routine maintenance. Automatic door release mechanisms linked to the fire alarm need a check that the doors close when the system operates.

For smoke control systems, carry out one test to confirm the system responds to a signal from the fire detection system and to any manual control for the fire service. For rising main inlets, outlets and landing valves, and suppression system control valves, check visually that they are undamaged and have not been interfered with. For fire detection and alarm systems in the common parts, check they are in efficient working order and good repair. Government guidance for blocks of flats says fire mains need an inspection every six months and a test every 12 months.

Check fire doors

Both checks apply where the top storey is above 11 metres, as it is in any building at least 18 metres high.

Tell residents what to do in a fire

Plan for residents who cannot leave without help

From 6 April 2026, the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 apply to buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises that are at least 18 metres high, have at least seven storeys, or are more than 11 metres high with a simultaneous evacuation strategy. The responsible person must:

• use reasonable endeavours to identify residents who live there as their only or main home and whose ability to leave unaided is compromised by a cognitive or physical impairment or condition
• offer each of them a person-centred fire risk assessment, and carry one out for anyone who asks
• after discussing it with the resident, put in place reasonable and proportionate measures, sharing the cost among residents only where most of them benefit and acting on a measure that benefits one resident only if that resident pays
• try to agree how the resident will evacuate, and if you agree it, record it in a written emergency evacuation statement and give the resident a copy
• review the assessment, the measures and the statement at least every 12 months
• tell the fire and rescue service each resident's flat number, floor number, the level of help they need and whether they have a statement, but only with the resident's explicit consent, by the means the service chooses
• prepare a building emergency evacuation plan, give a copy to the fire and rescue service, put a copy in the secure information box, and review it at least every 12 months

Building Safety Act duties

A high-rise residential building will normally also be a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act 2022, which covers buildings of at least 18 metres or seven storeys with at least two residential units. Its accountable persons have separate duties, overseen by the Building Safety Regulator. As the responsible person under the Order you must take reasonable steps to find out who the accountable persons are and co-operate with them (Article 22B).

What happens if you do not comply

Failing to comply with the Regulations is an offence under Article 32 of the Order where it places one or more relevant persons at risk of death or serious injury in case of fire. Fire and rescue authorities usually enforce the Order.