As part of the FPA’s 75th anniversary, we look at the changes in fire safety legislation over the decades, many of them made in reaction to tragic fatal fires.
The year after the FPA was established saw the introduction of the Fire Services Act 1947, which disbanded the National Fire Service and returned fire services to local authority control. It covered the provision of fire services, established fire authorities and required every fire authority in Great Britain to make ‘efficient arrangements’ for training, dealing with emergency calls, obtaining information about the properties of local buildings and water supplies, and for giving appropriate fire prevention advice.
The Act also provided for mutual assistance or ‘reinforcement’ schemes between fire authorities, and made provision for proposed combination of firefighting operations between any two or more fire authorities for the purposes of greater efficiency – subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. Provision was also made for the adoption of local Acts when fire authorities combined, or were otherwise re-constituted. Other aspects of the Act covered conditions of service, ranks, pay and promotions, standards of training and equipment, financing and firefighter pensions. It also set out the powers of firefighters and police to enter premises – if necessary by force – in order to extinguish fires or otherwise protect the premises, and provided for criminal sanctions for those who knowingly set false alarms.
The era of certification
Following a fire at Eastwood Mills in Keighley in February 1956, fire brigades were given the power to inspect factories for fire safety. These provisions were consolidated in the Factories Act 1961, which addressed workplace health and safety. The scope of fire certificates was also updated to include – in addition to means of escape – provisions for firefighting and structural fire separation.
In 1961, 10 people were killed in a fire at the Top Storey Club in Bolton, so the Licensing Act 1961 was amended to include such clubs, giving fire authorities powers of inspection over them.
After a fire at William Henderson & Sons department store in Liverpool, in which 11 people lost their lives and the premises was totally destroyed in just over an hour, the Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 was introduced to extend the protection of employees to places of work in addition to factories, and to give fire brigades the power to inspect for fire safety at offices, shops and railways.
Boxing Day 1969 saw a devastating fire at the Rose and Crown Hotel in Saffron Walden, which killed 11 people and which prompted the government to lay the foundations for a complete overhaul of fire safety legislation. The result was the Fire Precautions Act 1971, the first piece of legislation to deal exclusively with fire precautions. The Act effectively brought together the provisions of the Factories Act and the Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act, and enabled the Secretary of State to designate any type of premises to be covered by the legislation. Hotels and boarding houses were the first type of premises to be designated as requiring a fire certificate.
This was followed by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which in addition to general workplace health and safety provisions, effectively extended the scope of the Fire Precautions Act to cover all workplaces. The legislation also gave fire authorities the power to obtain a court order to prohibit the use of premises which posed a serious risk of danger from fire to occupants (prohibition notice).
Following a major explosion and fire at the Nypro plant in Flixborough in 1974, the government issued the Fire Certificates (Special Premises) Regulations 1976 which brought the requirement for fire certificates to major chemical and other risks. The provisions were enforced by the Health and Safety Executive.
The Building Act 1984 consolidated the issuing of building regulations for England and Wales. These include minimum fire safety measures for fire resistance and safe means of escape for all new or altered buildings. Under the relevant Building Regulations in England and Wales is Approved Document B, which offers guidance on how to satisfy the requirements of the Building Regulations in schedule 1 part B – fire safety.
The Fire Precautions Act was amended by the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987, which came about after a fire at Bradford City Football ground in 1985 in which 56 people died. It heralded the first chipping away of blanket certification by fire brigades by introducing duties on the occupier concerning means of escape, maintenance of firefighting equipment and fire safety training of employees. Fire services were also given the authority to issue prohibition notices without the need for a court order, and a small element of risk management was introduced, with fire authorities being given the power to exempt low risk premises from needing a certificate.
The Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations 1989 came about after the horrific fire at London’s Kings Cross Underground station in November 1987, which resulted in the loss of 31 lives. The Regulations contained specific fire prevention and precautions for stations situated underground, including enhanced measures for:
- the means of escape
- signage and emergency lighting
- detection and alarm systems
- dedicated detection and suppression systems for escalators and travelators
- fire-resisting construction
- use of non-combustible internal construction materials (including a ban on wooden escalators)
- staff training
- improved radio communications underground
In England, the 1989 regulations have been succeeded by the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) (England) Regulations 2009, together with Guidance Note 3: Fire Safety on Sub-Surface Railway Stations on how to meet the 2009 regulations.
Risk-based approach
Fast forward nearly a decade and we see the introduction of the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997, which heralds a more risk based, flexible approach to fire safety and was required to comply with European directives. The Workplace Regulations began the shift in responsibility for fire safety from fire services to employers, and introduced to fire safety the concept of risk assessment which was familiar to some from general health and safety legislation. The regulations also brought in new remedial enforcement measures by fire authorities such as improvement notices, which would set out any defects and provide a reasonable time for their remediation.
The Workplace Regulations was the shape of things to come in terms of a new approach to fire safety legislation, and this came about in England and Wales with the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (Fire Safety Order), which replaced most existing fire safety legislation, including the Fire Precautions Act 1971. This effectively abolished the issuing of fire certificates by local fire authorities and extended the principle of a risk-assessed approach by the building owner or occupier to almost all buildings, other than family homes or individual flats in a block. Similar legislation was introduced in Scotland (Fire Scotland Act 2005) and Northern Ireland (Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010.)
There was a good deal of scepticism about the Fire Safety Order when it was published, not helped by the fact that some of the official guides to the legislation had not yet been produced. However, as it bedded down the criticisms subsided, to the extent that it is now difficult to see a return to the type of wholesale fire service certification that existed under the Fire Precautions Act (although the post-Grenfell Tower direction of travel suggests a more prescriptive approach for high-rise residential buildings and potentially others in future).
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 put the duties and responsibilities of fire services on a statutory footing. In addition to firefighting, they were tasked with promoting fire safety in their areas, including giving advice on fire precautions and fire prevention. Other duties include responding to road traffic incidents, floods and terrorist attacks.
The Housing Act 2004 established the 29 ‘hazards’ defined under the risk-based Housing, Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) for residential properties in England and Wales including flats, shared houses, houses in multiple occupation, a single person or family house rental, and the common parts of flats and HMOs. Fire safety is one of the defined hazards, where environmental health officers can require adequate and sufficient fire safety measures in dwellings.
The shock of Grenfell
In spite of the introduction of these laws across the decades – mostly as a consequence of large fatality fires – it is astonishing that the largest loss of life from a residential fire since Word War II occurred just four years ago in 2017, with the deaths of 72 people. In response to the tragedy, a wide-ranging independent review of building regulations and fire safety by Dame Judith Hackitt was published. The government responded to the report’s recommendations by publishing a draft Building Safety Bill as far back as July 2020, but it was only introduced to parliament in July 2021. A large part of the Bill – which is currently making its was through parliament – is devoted to a new regulatory regime, in the first instance for residential buildings of 18m and above, or seven storeys or more, and which contains at least two residential units. A Building Safety Regulator (within the Health and Safety Executive) will oversee the new regime, which comprises a rigorous risk assessment and management process for the construction and occupation of these buildings, and the identification of duty holders as Accountable Persons assisted by Building Safety Managers. The system is designed to bring transparency to the design, construction and fire safety management of tall residential buildings, with readily available information for regulators and residents.
In theory, other types of buildings can be brought into the regulatory scope of the Bill in the future. The regulator will also have a wider role that will apply to all buildings, including:
- ensuring that designers and builders can access the best advice to deliver safe, high-performing buildings
- advising the government on changes to building regulations and approved documents
- supervising the performance of building control bodies
- advising on current and emerging risks to building safety in general
The Bill will also seek to strengthen the regulatory framework for construction products led by an Office for Product Safety and Standards. There are also provisions for a construction products standards committee to advice the government on whether voluntary industry standards for construction products should become UK standards. In addition, the Bill sets out provisions for strengthening competence frameworks for all trades and professions.
Another piece of legislation which came about following the Grenfell Tower fire is the Fire Safety Act 2021, which aims to clarify certain details of the Fire Safety Order. Among other things, the Act extends the scope of common parts in multi-occupancy residential buildings (not just high-rise buildings) to include the structure, external walls and individual doors to flats, so that they would be included in any fire risk assessment under the Fire Safety Order.
There is, of course, a trend that becomes apparent when considering the recent history of fire safety legislation in the UK: most legislation has been introduced after a single high-profile fire with multiple fatalities. Perhaps that’s inevitable to some extent, but wouldn’t it be heartening if governments could listen a bit more carefully to experts in the industry and try to anticipate where problems may exist – before they turn into real disasters.
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