The British Standards Institution (BSI), the UK’s national standards body, has released its updated fire safety guidance for UK residential buildings, BS 9991:2024
Published on 27 November 2024, the revised code of practice supersedes BS 9991:2015 and features an expanded scope to include residential care homes, the expansion of guidance relating to evacuation lifts, and revised height limits for sprinkler installation and single-stair buildings. BS 9991:2024 Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings – Code of practice can be used across the whole of the UK.
As previously reported by the FPA, the BSI shared its initial insights into BS 9991:2024 earlier in the month, noting that the revised edition would include “significant updates” to reflect the “increasing complexity of modern building designs” as well as the industry’s evolving knowledge and understanding of fire behaviour, materials, and fire safety systems.
The “fully revised” standard followed a lengthy consultation process with key stakeholders, with BSI stating that the revisions were “underway ahead of the Grenfell Tower final report publication in September 2024 as part of the normal process of updating and revising standards”.
“While the Grenfell report did not make any specific recommendations for changes to BS 9991, it has of course re-emphasised the importance of comprehensive and up-to-date building safety and standards,” it said.
The technical committee responsible for BS 9991:2024 is FSH/14 Fire precautions in buildings, which oversees the development of national standards for fire safety precautions in residential and commercial buildings, fire risk assessment, and fire risk management systems. The committee reviewed more than 1,800 comments from a public consultation.
You can access BS 9991:2024 here.