The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO) requires that a fire risk assessment is carried out and the relevant records kept on all premises with five or more employees.

“The responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed for the purposes of identifying the general fire precautions he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on him by or under this order.”

You are responsible for fire safety in your business or other non-domestic premises if you are:

• An Employer
• The Owner
• The Landlord
• An Occupier
• Anyone else with control of the premises, for example a facilities manager, building manager, managing agent or designated risk assessor.

As of 16^th May 2022, the Fire Safety Act 2021 came into force. This act has made amendments to the RRO. The changes affected Article 6 of the RRO “Application to premises”. It now clarifies that for residential buildings with multiple occupancy, the fire safety duties owed apply to:

• The external walls and any common parts of the building, including doors or windows in the walls and anything attached to the walls (including balconies); and
• All doors between the domestic premises and common parts.

‘Responsible Persons’ with duties in respect of multi-occupied residential buildings (such as residential landlords and Tenant Management Organisations) need to consider whether their existing risk assessments and fire safety measures include the parts of buildings covered in the Act.