Queen's Speech December 2019 - Fire Safety Bill

Fire Safety Bill

“New measures will be brought forward...to improve building safety.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• ●  Deliver meaningful change to ensure an appalling tragedy like Grenfell can

  never happen again.

• ●  Implement the relevant legislative recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry Phase 1 Report.

• ●  Put beyond doubt that the Fire Safety Order will require building owners and managers of multi-occupied residential premises of any height to fully consider and mitigate the risks of any external wall systems and fire doors.

  The main benefits of the Bill would be:

  • ●  Providing residents in these properties with reassurance that the Government is learning lessons from the Grenfell tragedy and taking steps to improve their safety.

  • ●  Ensuring that building owners and managers are clear that they are responsible for assessing the risks of external walls and fire doors in buildings of any height.

  • ●  Making clear Fire and Rescue Services’ role to undertake enforcement against dangerous cladding and fire doors in residential buildings.

    The main elements of the Bill are:

• ●  Clarifying that the scope of the Fire Safety Order includes the external walls of the building, including cladding, and fire doors for domestic premises of multiple occupancy.

• ●  Strengthening the relevant enforcement powers to hold building owners and managers to account.

• ●  Providing a transitional period for building owners and managers (the “responsible person”) and Fire and Rescue Services to put in place the infrastructure for these changes.

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Territorial extent and application

● The Bill's provisions would extend and apply to England only. Fire safety policy and fire and rescue services are devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Key facts

• ●  Dame Judith Hackitt’s review found that the current regulatory system is not fit for purpose in relation to high-rise and complex buildings. The Government has agreed to take forward all 53 of Dame Judith’s recommendations and in some areas going further.

• ●  Since the fire at Grenfell, we have taken forward a wide range of improvements that have not required legislation.