Specific duties covered in the Home Office Guidance
The updated Home Office Guidance states that Article 50 of the RRO requires “...the Secretary of State to ensure that such guidance as they consider appropriate is made available to assist [RPs] to discharge their duties.” The guidance does not, however, state that it is made under Article 50.
Recording the FRA and other information
Article 9 of the RRO requires the RP to carry out a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risks to which “relevant persons” (defined in Article 2) are exposed, for the purposes of identifying the “general fire precautions” (defined in Article 4) that need to be taken.
The updated guidance states that the RP should:
"make available as much information as possible about fire safety in [the] premises"
The requirement on the RP used to be limited to recording just the significant findings that came to light as a result of the FRA. RPs will now be required to record the FRA in full. In addition, where a fire risk assessor is appointed to assist with the FRA, the name of the person and the organisation will also need to be recorded.
Co-operation and coordination between the RPs
Article 22 of the RRO deals with co-operation and co-ordination between RPs:
"… where two or more responsible persons share, or have duties in respect of, premises (whether on a temporary or a permanent basis)"
The guidance emphasises the importance of RPs working together to develop a joined-up approach to fire safety in the entire building. Each RP will be required to take such “steps as are reasonably practicable” to identify other RPs in the premises and exchange contact details with them. The RPs will need to inform one another of the extent of their duties under the RRO.
In addition, whenever the identify of an RP changes, the new incoming RP will need to be looped in. The guidance states that RPs will be required to share relevant fire safety information with incoming RPs in order to provide a continual record throughout the building’s lifetime.
It follows that the findings from an FRA and the details of the fire safety measures taken are shared between these RPs – in the words used in guidance note:
"… to align with, and complement, the fire risk assessment(s) and fire safety measures for the rest of the building in order to provide a whole building approach to fire safety."
Focus on information
In the future, all of the above will need to be recorded in a way that will enable the information to be accessed readily and shared easily. This means that property management arrangements (including FM) will need to be reviewed and revisited to ensure that adequate provision is made for the new requirements.
If an RP has difficulty obtaining information about incoming RPs, it will be important to contact the owner or manager of the building in question. The guidance advises:
"If they do not have them or cannot provide them, you should provide all the required information to the building owner or manager so that they can forward this onto the incoming responsible person when this has been identified."
Interface with RPs
The role of the RP has been in existence ever since the RRO provision that created it came into force. The new AP and PAP dutyholder roles are new. Stakeholders need to understand how the roles come together.
An RP in an HRB (a building that is least 18 metres in height, or has at least 7 storeys, and contains at least 2 residential units) will have to take reasonable steps to identify the AP (this may include the PAP) within the premises, make contact with the AP, share contact details and co-operate with the AP.
The dutyholders will, together, take a whole building approach to building and fire safety in the premises – which will in due course include the ‘golden thread of building information’ that will be needed to be documented digitally in relation to all, HRBs. As at the date of this briefing, we are still awaiting the secondary legislation that will bring this into force.
Disputes
Where disputes that relate to the cooperation and coordination duties arise, the guidance steers RPs towards the AP, the landlord or freeholder in the first instance. The guidance goes on to say that, if this approach fails to resolve any dispute, the RP should then contact the relevant enforcement authority.
Section 156(4)
Finally, mention needs to made of Section 156(4), which will not come into force in October.
Section 156(4) concerns assistance given to RPs in connection with risk assessments. At this stage, the Home Office is not commencing the requirement for RPs to ensure that anyone they appoint to do a fire risk assessment is competent. We understand that the Home Office is presently developing a roll out plan and that guidance to help RPs to understand and meet the new requirements will be published before Section 156 (4) is brought into force.
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