Essential changes in fire safety legislation came into effect on 1 October 2023, and affect the duties of the responsible person in residential and non-residential premises.
The new requirements (implemented by s.156 of the Building Safety Act 2022) apply to all non-domestic premises, such as where people work, visit or stay, including workplaces, and the non-domestic parts of multi-occupied residential buildings. For local councils, the relevant changes are those which will affect non-residential premises.
You are a ‘responsible person’ if you are an employer, have control of the premises or are an owner of a premises. If this applies to you, then you do now have additional duties around what needs to be done, how that work is recorded, how you co-operate with other responsible persons, and how you provide information to new responsible persons. Worknest have put together some guidance which contains a guide to everything that has been brought in and what you now need to do.
To help you meet the requirements, Worknest have also created a Fire Safety Compliance Matrix which goes through some of the requirements step by step with details of what might need to be checked, and when it will need to be checked, along with space to fill in dates of the last inspection and by whom it was carried out.