The Inquiry recommended that the Government develops national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings. In December 2019, a joint Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities technical steering group was set up to support a research project to review means of escape provisions in blocks of flats including the use of the ‘stay put’ strategy and evacuation.

The steering group identified four strands to this work: an evidence review to assess academic evidence on methods of evacuation; operational research to test evacuation strategies; building design research to evaluate fire safety provisions in buildings; and human behaviour and public confidence to better understand public perception and understanding of evacuation strategies.  The report for the first stage of work, a rapid evidence review on evacuation from fire in high-rise residential buildings was published in November 2022.

The Home Office, working closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council and London Fire Brigade, commissioned research into FRS high rise residential building evacuation, intended to inform these national guidelines. Live testing took place in May 2022.  The contracted research team has completed collating and analysing the data from these trials and is now drafting their report.

On the building design and human behaviour research strands, the supplier has conducted a literature review and interviews were conducted to:

1. Examine resident and FRS understanding of building evacuation guidance and the confidence they have in following that guidance in the event of a fire
2. Understand future developments in high-rise residential buildings that may impact fire safety designs in the future.

The full implementation of this policy is dependent on the completion of recommendation 33.22a, that the government develop national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise residential buildings, which is in progress.

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.

In March 2023, the NFCC surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations. In response to recommendation 33.22b:

• 88% of services (38 services) have completed the recommendation and have reported that they have reviewed their policies relating to evacuation, instigated changes, and trained personnel. This represents a 16% increase from previous NFCC survey completed in August 2022.
• 2% of services (one service) has reported they have made changes and trained staff but have not completed assessments
• 9% of services (4 services) have made the necessary policy changes but are still training its staff. No date is given for completion of training

On performing training exercises relating to evacuation:

• 86% of services (37 services) have trained and assessed all staff in evacuation policies since the Grenfell Tower fire and have conducted training exercises to embed learning from these policies.
• 9% of services (4 services) have trained all staff but have not performed live exercises in a high-rise building.
• 5% of services (two services) are in the process of training and exercising staff.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has reported that recommendation 33.22b has been completed.

The LFB has developed an Evacuation and Rescue policy (published on 31st 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 consulted on its proposals to address this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020) and again in the Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing Plus (EEIS+) consultation in 2022. The Government is in the process of producing its formal response to the EEIS+ consultation which will lay out, in more detail, how this recommendation will be addressed. Details of the draft proposals, as consulted upon, can be found here.

The Government agrees that these three measures identified by the Phase 1 report - wayfinding signage, evacuation alert systems and sprinklers - need additional consideration. In May 2020, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published amendments to Approved Document B (ADB) to recommend sprinkler systems and consistent wayfinding signage in all new blocks of flats with storeys over 11 metres tall. A further update to ADB, announced by DLUHC on 1 June 2022, has been introduced so that new residential developments over 18 metres in height will have to incorporate evacuation alert systems.

The NFCC has developed guidance and training packages to support the introduction and use of British Standard (BS) 8629 compliant Evacuation alert systems. 53% of services (23 services) have used this product to train their staff.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has implemented training for relevant operational staff relating to evacuation alert systems and considers this action complete from a Brigade perspective.

The Home Office is currently developing an evidence base of existing evacuation alert systems in high-rise residential buildings.  This will inform the next step of work, addressing evacuation alert systems in existing high-rise residential buildings.

The Government consulted on proposals to address these recommendations in the 2020 Fire Safety Consultation, the 2021 PEEPs consultation, and the 2022 EEIS+ consultation which ran from 18 May to 21 August 2022. The Government is in the process of producing its formal response to the EEIS+ consultation which will lay out, in more detail, how these two recommendations will be addressed. Details of the draft proposals, as consulted upon, can be found here.

The Government consulted on proposals to address these recommendations in the 2020 Fire Safety Consultation, the 2021 PEEPs consultation, and the 2022 EEIS+ consultation which ran from 18 May to 21 August 2022. The Government is in the process of producing its formal response to the EEIS+ consultation which will lay out, in more detail, how these two recommendations will be addressed. Details of the draft proposals, as consulted upon, can be found here.

In August 2022, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all FRSs (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against the recommendations.

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

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