GB fire safety law in non-domestic premises is one instrument with two later additions. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the duty. The Fire Safety Act 2021 settled an argument about what the duty covers in blocks of flats. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added specific, checkable obligations on multi-occupied residential buildings, which is where the regime had been vaguest.
The Order, in one paragraph
It applies to all non-domestic premises and to the common parts of blocks of flats. It puts the duty on the responsible person, requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, requires general fire precautions, escape routes, emergency lighting, signage, detection and firefighting equipment as the assessment identifies, requires maintenance, requires nominated competent persons and training, and requires cooperation where more than one duty-holder shares a building.
What the Fire Safety Act 2021 changed
It clarified that where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the Order applies to the structure and external walls including cladding, balconies and windows, and to the doors between the domestic premises and the common parts. That had been argued over, and the Act ended the argument, which is why external wall assessments became a normal part of a block's fire risk assessment.
What the 2022 Regulations added
Checkable duties on multi-occupied residential buildings, with more required as buildings get taller: information to residents, checks of communal and flat entrance fire doors above 11 metres, and for high-rise buildings information for the fire and rescue service including building plans, lift and equipment checks, wayfinding signage and a secure information box. They are specific in a way the Order deliberately is not.
Who is responsible for enforcing fire safety
The local fire and rescue authority for most premises, with HSE, the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland's equivalents, the Ministry of Defence fire service and local authority building control enforcing in defined cases. An inspecting officer can give advice, serve an alterations notice, an enforcement notice or a prohibition notice, or prosecute. A prohibition notice can close premises immediately, which is the outcome duty-holders least expect and most regret.
Scotland and Wales
The Order is England and Wales. Scotland has its own regime under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006, with equivalent duties and different citations, and the 2022 Regulations are England only. A firm quoting the Order for a building in Glasgow is quoting the wrong law.
Holiday let fire regulations, and the guide that actually applies
A holiday let is sleeping accommodation in the course of a business, so the Fire Safety Order applies to it and the person with control has to carry out a fire risk assessment and keep it under review, whatever its size. The 2023 amendments made the recording of that assessment a requirement in all premises rather than only where five or more are employed, so a single cottage let commercially now records its assessment. The practical standard comes from the government's own guide for sleeping accommodation rather than the offices and shops one: detection in the right places, escape from the first floor, a plan the guest can read, and an instruction sheet that names the address.
Health and safety at work act 1974 section 3, the duty to everybody else
Section 2 covers your employees. Section 3 is the one that reaches everybody who is not on your payroll, and it is where most fire safety prosecutions of landlords, letting agents, managing agents and contractors actually land. It requires an employer to conduct their undertaking so as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment who may be affected are not exposed to risks to their health or safety, and it applies the same duty to the self employed. Three consequences follow. A tenant, a guest, a visiting engineer and a passer by are all within it. Handing a job to a contractor does not hand over the duty, because choosing and managing that contractor IS conducting your undertaking. And it bites without anybody being hurt: the offence is the exposure to risk, which is why a prosecution can follow an inspection rather than an injury.
Is there a Fire Safety Act 2022, and what people mean by it
There is not. The Act is the Fire Safety Act 2021, and the reason the wrong year is typed so often is that two separate things did land in 2022: the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which put specific duties on responsible persons in blocks of flats, and the Building Safety Act 2022, which is a different statute altogether and created the higher risk regime for tall residential buildings. So somebody asking about a Fire Safety Act 2022 usually wants one of those two, and which one they want is decided by the building. For an office or a shop, none of the three changed the basic position: the Fire Safety Order still applies and the risk assessment is still the duty.
Questions people ask about fire safety act 2021
Is the Fire Safety Act 2021 separate from the Fire Safety Order?
It amends it. The Order remains the duty; the Act clarified that the duty covers the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors in buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises.
Who enforces a Fire Safety Order?
Usually the local fire and rescue authority, with HSE, the MoD fire service and building control enforcing in defined cases. They can advise, serve notices or prosecute.
Do the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply to my office?
No. They apply to multi-occupied residential buildings. An office remains governed by the Order itself.
Does the Order apply in Scotland?
No. Scotland has its own regime under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
Are fire safety plans a legal requirement, or is the assessment enough?
The assessment is the duty and the plan is how its findings get implemented, which is why in practice you need both. The Order requires the responsible person to make arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures, and those arrangements are what a plan records: who does what on discovering a fire, how people are warned and where they go, who helps anybody who needs it, who calls the brigade, the drill and training programme, and who maintains each measure. A plan nobody has been shown is the commonest audit finding, and a plan written for a building since altered is the second.
Are there fire safety rules for a small business, or only the assessment?
The assessment generates the rules rather than replacing them. What the Order requires of every responsible person is the same whatever the size: assess the risk, remove or reduce it, provide appropriate firefighting equipment and detection, keep escape routes usable, plan for an emergency, train staff, maintain the measures and record the assessment, which since 2023 applies to premises of any size. What changes with size is the length of the answer, not the list. A single shop can discharge all of it on a few pages and a wall notice; what it cannot do is skip a line.