Plans
Theme 3
Plans
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Recommendation
33.12a
That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to provide their local fire and rescue services with up-to-date plans in both paper and electronic form of every floor of the building identifying the location of key fire safety systems.
Responsible for completion:
- Government
Progress
Status
The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).
On 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement this recommendation. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.
Under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must prepare a plan for each floor of the building. This plan should show, alongside the layout of the relevant floor, the location of all lifts and main fire-fighting equipment for the building. Where the layout for two or more floors are identical, the responsible person can produce a single plan (as long as they clearly indicate the floors to which that plan relates). The responsible person must send these plans electronically to their local fire and rescue service.
In addition to this plan, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must, under the Regulations, prepare an additional hard copy single page building plan to show the environs of the building, as well as the location of fire-fighting facilities and information useful to the fire and rescue service.
Also, under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must install a secure information box in or on the premises. This secure information box should contain hard copies of the building floor plans, the single page building plan and the UK contact details of the responsible person and any other individual the responsible person considers appropriate.
In addition to this, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) consulted on the proposal to recommend secure information boxes in new blocks of flats through an update to Building Regulation guidance document Approved Document B (ADB). DLUHC announced on 1 June 2022 that it had amended ADB so that secure information boxes will now have to be installed in all new residential buildings over 11 metres.
Recommendation
33.12b
That the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building be required by law to ensure that the building contains a premises information box, the contents of which must include a copy of the up-to-date floor plans and information about the nature of any lift intended for use by the fire and rescue services.
Responsible for completion:
- Government
Progress
Status
The Government consulted on its proposals to implement this recommendation in its Fire Safety Consultation (carried out in 2020). The Government responded to the consultation in 2021 (link).
On 18 May 2022 the Government laid regulations under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to implement this recommendation. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023.
Under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must prepare a plan for each floor of the building. This plan should show, alongside the layout of the relevant floor, the location of all lifts and main fire-fighting equipment for the building. Where the layout for two or more floors are identical, the responsible person can produce a single plan (as long as they clearly indicate the floors to which that plan relates). The responsible person must send these plans electronically to their local fire and rescue service.
In addition to this plan, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must, under the Regulations, prepare an additional hard copy single page building plan to show the environs of the building, as well as the location of fire-fighting facilities and information useful to the fire and rescue service.
Also, under the Regulations, the responsible person for a high-rise residential building must install a secure information box in or on the premises. This secure information box should contain hard copies of the building floor plans, the single page building plan and the UK contact details of the responsible person and any other individual the responsible person considers appropriate.
In addition to this, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) consulted on the proposal to recommend secure information boxes in new blocks of flats through an update to Building Regulation guidance document Approved Document B (ADB). DLUHC announced on 1 June 2022 that it had amended ADB so that secure information boxes will now have to be installed in all new residential buildings over 11 metres.
Recommendation
33.12c
That all fire and rescue services be equipped to receive and store electronic plans and to make them available to incident commanders and control room managers
Progress date:
November 2023
Responsible for completion:
- Fire and Rescue Services
Progress
Status for fire and rescue services
Status for London Fire Brigade
In October 2023, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) surveyed all fire and rescue services (with the exception of the LFB) in England about their progress against recommendation 33.12c. Every service reported they are equipped to receive and store electronic plans.
In terms of making these plans on high rise residential buildings (HRRBs) available to control room managers and to personnel on the incident ground, including the incident commanders, as well as ensuring that operational risk information for high-risk HRRBs is accurate, the NFCC survey found:
98% of services (42 services) said that risk information for high rise residential buildings in their service areas were available to personnel on the incident ground. These services also report that they have reviewed all high-risk HRRB information in their service area but not all have appropriate plans. This represents a 5% increase from the previous NFCC survey completed in March 2023.
The remaining services (2%) has stated that some high risk HRRBs do not have risk information, but an action plan is in place and this recommendation will be completed within 24 months.
To fully address this recommendation, the NFCC recommend that operational risk information for high-risk high-rise residential buildings is accurate and contains all the pertinent information.
Due to the number of buildings and other risks in a fire services response area it is challenging to ensure all relevant operational risk information, plans and other information remains accurate. The responsible person for the building must ensure fire risk assessments and all relevant actions including the provision of plans and other information is completed. The changes in legislation (for recommendations 33.12a and 33.12b) support fire and rescue services ensuring that appropriate information is available to emergency responders.
The LFB report that recommendation 33.12c is now complete having been incorporated into the Brigade’s One Risk solution.
The completion of the One Risk project will contribute to the effective storage and dissemination of electronic plans and amalgamate all relevant building related risk information into a single system. The One Risk project is currently in Phase 2 (Procurement), although some workstreams from Phase 1 (Requirements Gathering) require completion.
Whilst this project is ongoing, the Brigade has in place an interim solution to improve how it gathers, records, and disseminates information on buildings provided by building owners and managers.
[Status of 33.12c corrected to 'complete' for LFB on 11 April 2024]