Home Office Guidance on Section 156
The Home Office recently uploaded revised Guidance on Section 156 to its website. The guidance explains what RPs need to do as a result of the changes made by the BSA to the RRO.
The changes form part of the Home Office’s wider fire safety reform programme which builds on the FSA and Fire Safety Regulations (and also includes plans to reform the fire and rescue service). The aim of Section 156 is to strengthen fire safety in RRO regulated premises by:
- promoting and improving co-operation between RPs (where there is a change in the identity of the RP) and also between RPs and APs;
- increasing the requirements in relation to the recording and sharing of fire safety information;
- ensuring that residents have access to comprehensive information about fire safety in their buildings;
- increasing the level of fines for some offences; and
- strengthening the status of statutory guidance issued under Article 50 of the RRO.
Article 50 requires the Secretary of State to provide guidance to assist RPs to discharge their duties. Changes made to the RRO by the FSA strengthen the status of Article 50 guidance by providing that, in court proceedings for alleged breaches of the RRO:
"...compliance with or deviation from guidance issued under Article 50 may be relied upon as tending to establish whether or not there was a breach of the Fire Safety Order".
The effect of Section 156
Pursuant to the updated RRO, RPs will need to
- record
- completed fire risk assessments (FRAs) in full (presently, it is only specific information that has to be recorded) (BSA S156(3));
- the identity of persons they appoint to undertake/review any or all of the FRAs (BSA 156(8) and new RRO 22(A)(3));
- the fire safety arrangements made (BSA 156(5) and new RRO (11(2));
- and share with other RPs (BSA 156(7) and (8) and new RRO 22 and 22(A)) and also with residents of multi-occupied residential premises (BSA 156(6) and new RRO 21(A)) their contact information, which should include a UK based address;
- take “such steps as are reasonably practicable to ascertain” the existence of other RPs who share or have duties in respect of the same premises and of APs (in relation to HRBs) and identify themselves to these persons;
- require outgoing RPs to share relevant fire safety information with incoming RPs; and
- require RPs of any building containing two or more sets of domestic premises to provide residents with relevant fire safety information, in a format that is easily understood by the residents.
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