High Rise Flats: Fire Prevention

(asked on 8th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what regulation is in place to oversee companies offering waking watch fire patrols in buildings with unsafe cladding materials.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 16th July 2021

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the FSO), the Responsible Person for each building is required to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place within their building. If a responsible person uses a waking watch as part of a wider building fire safety strategy to mitigate the risks in a particular building, as informed by a fire risk assessment, it is for them to ensure its adequacy.

The Government and NFCC make available guidance to support those responsible in complying with the FSO and ensuring their premises remain safe for continued use but does not monitor service providers. The National Fire Chiefs Council has recently revised its Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance which reflects best practice and can be located at https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/Simultaneous-evacuation-guidance.

This guidance encourages greater use of more cost-effective measures such as alarm systems to replace or reduce dependency on waking watch wherever possible.

Local fire and rescue authorities and other enforcers of the FSO can take action where the fire safety measures fall short of compliance.

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