The Inquiry recommended in Phase 1 report that Government should develop national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings. Home Office and the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), on advice from a technical steering group undertook four research projects: 

• A Home Office summary report of operational research carried out by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) was published on 5 February 2024.
• A report on human behaviour which has been published by OFR Consultants in May 2023.
• A report on building design which has been published by OFR Consultants in March 2024.
• The Evacuation from fire in high-rise residential buildings: a rapid evidence review was published by the Home Office in November 2022.

Evacuation guidelines to the Fire and Rescue Service have been drawn from the reports and research listed above as well as related work and were published on 5 February 2024. 

In December 2019, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) published the reviewed guidance that provides information for fire and rescue services to change evacuation strategies and perform mass rescue, based on advice and information from fire and rescue service leads. This has undergone significant scrutiny and been subject to external review by health and safety consultants.

NFCC surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations.  All services have completed the necessary action.

The LFB has reported that recommendation 33.22b has been completed.

The LFB has developed an Evacuation and Rescue policy (published on 31 March 2021), alongside the revised Fire Survival Guidance policy. The Evacuation and Rescue policy has been shared with the NFCC’s High Rise Firefighting working group to support sector wide learning.

Training on the new policy has been provided to all operational staff via computer-based training packages and face to face training for Watch and senior officers. This training is reinforced by guided learning exercises for station-based staff.

The Government will lay new Residential PEEPs (RPEEPs) secondary legislation later in 2025 which will also include mandating building-level evacuation plans for all high-rise residential buildings, and for those medium-rise residential buildings with a simultaneous evacuation plan in place. Together, these measures will mandate that the building owner/manager engages with their vulnerable residents, considers how to improve their fire safety and evacuation, enables all residents to be clear on what they should do in the event of a fire, and give fire and rescue services information in case they need to support their evacuation.

Statutory guidance has been updated to provide for Evacuation Alert Systems in all new blocks of flats over 18 metres, to enable fire and rescue services to send an evacuation signal to the whole or a selected part of the building by means of sounders or similar devices. The limited evidence on the effectiveness of the system is not sufficient to justify mandating retrofitting of evacuation alert systems into existing high-rise residential buildings at this time. There have been significant improvements in the broader fire and building safety environment since the Phase 1 report, and fire and rescue services have completed policies and training for partial and total high-rise building evacuations, meeting a separate Inquiry recommendation which have increased overall safety of evacuations and reduced fire-related injuries.

The Government will lay new Residential PEEPs (RPEEPs) secondary legislation later in 2025 which will also include mandating building-level evacuation plans for all high-rise residential buildings, and for those medium-rise residential buildings with a simultaneous evacuation plan in place. Together, these measures will mandate that the building owner/manager engages with their vulnerable residents, considers how to improve their fire safety and evacuation through a person centred fire risk assessment, enable all residents to be clear on what they should do in the event of a fire, and give fire and rescue services information in case they need to support their evacuation. We have committed funding next financial year (2025/26) to support social housing providers to deliver RPEEPs for their tenants.  Future years’ funding are being considered through the Spending Review. 

The Government will lay new Residential PEEPs (RPEEPs) secondary legislation later in 2025 which will also include mandating building-level evacuation plans for all high-rise residential buildings, and for those medium-rise residential buildings with a simultaneous evacuation plan in place. Together, these measures will mandate that the building owner/manager engages with their vulnerable residents, considers how to improve their fire safety and evacuation through a person centred fire risk assessment, enable all residents to be clear on what they should do in the event of a fire, and give fire and rescue services information in case they need to support their evacuation. We have committed funding next financial year (2025/26) to support social housing providers to deliver RPEEPs for their tenants.  Future years’ funding are being considered through the Spending Review. 

In August 2022 National Fire Chiefs Council surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations. 

For this recommendation, all 43 services who responded to that survey reported that they have acquired smoke hoods and they are operationally available, and staff are trained in how to use them.

The LFB has reported that this recommendation is complete. The Brigade implemented smoke hoods on all its front-line appliances in November 2018.