Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: What Fire Risk Assessors Need to Know

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023. They are sometimes searched for under the wrong year — assessors and responsible persons alike will see them referred to as the "Fire Safety Act 2022," but that is a misnomer. The 2022 Regulations are a Statutory Instrument (SI 2022/547) made under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, separate from the Fire Safety Act 2021.

If you carry out fire risk assessments on multi-occupied residential buildings in England, these Regulations directly change what your reports need to cover. This guide walks through the new duties regulation by regulation, with verbatim citations to the operative text, so you can structure your assessments around the statutory requirements rather than around generalised summaries.

This article summarises the legislation for educational purposes and is not legal advice. For specific compliance questions, consult a qualified fire safety solicitor or your enforcing authority.

What These Regulations Are — and What They Are Not

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 are a Statutory Instrument made under Article 24 of the Fire Safety Order. They sit on top of the existing fire safety framework, adding new duties on the responsible person for specific categories of multi-occupied residential building. They do not replace the Order, the Fire Safety Act 2021, or any other instrument — they sit alongside.

The Regulations were laid before Parliament on 18 May 2022 and came into force on 23 January 2023. The commencement date is uniform across all regulations: there is no phased rollout, despite the regulator-led communications often making it sound that way.

There are 12 regulations in total:

1. Citation, commencement, extent and application
2. Interpretation
3. Meaning of high-rise residential building
4. Secure information box
5. Design and materials of external walls
6. Floor plans and building plan
7. Lifts and essential fire-fighting equipment
8. Wayfinding signage
9. Information to residents
10. Fire doors
11. Provision of documents to local fire and rescue authority
12. Duty to review

Regulations 4 through 8 apply only to high-rise residential buildings as defined in Regulation 3. Regulations 9 and 10 apply more broadly. Regulations 11 and 12 are duties about how the rest of the framework is administered.

The 18 Metres / Seven Storeys Threshold

Regulation 3(1) defines "high-rise residential building" as:

"a building containing two or more sets of domestic premises that — (a) is at least 18 metres above ground level; or (b) has at least seven storeys."

Either condition triggers the high-rise threshold. A six-storey building under 18 metres is not a high-rise residential building for the purposes of these Regulations. A seven-storey building of any height is. Building height is measured to the top storey under the related building height calculation rules in Regulation 3(2).

For your assessment scope, identifying which threshold applies — and recording your reasoning explicitly — is the first practical task. A surveyor's confirmation of the building height, or an architect's drawing showing storey count, is your evidence base. Where height is ambiguous, record the limitation and recommend the responsible person obtains a formal measurement.

Regulation 4: Secure Information Box

For high-rise residential buildings, the responsible person must "install and maintain a secure information box in or on the building." The box must be:

• Readily accessible to fire and rescue authorities
• Capable of holding the documents required by the Regulations
• "Reasonably secure from unauthorised access and vandalism"

What goes inside: the responsible person's contact details, contact details of others nominated to act on their behalf, and the floor plans and single-page building plan required by Regulation 6(5). The Regulation 5 external-wall record is not a secure-information-box document — it is provided to the local fire and rescue authority under Regulation 11. The local fire and rescue authority must be given the materials needed to access the box, and informed promptly when any of those materials change. Note: Regulation 9 fire safety instructions are displayed in a conspicuous part of the building (per Reg 9 operative text), not held in the secure information box.

The responsible person must review the box at least once a year.

For your assessment: record whether the box is present, accessible, and stocked. Note location, security, and contents. Where the responsible person is uncertain of their duties under Regulation 4, your report should flag the deficiency and recommend remediation.

Regulation 5: Design and Materials of External Walls

For high-rise residential buildings, the responsible person must prepare a record of:

• The design of the external walls, including details of the materials from which they are constructed
• The level of risk identified in the fire risk assessment for the external walls
• Any mitigating steps that have been taken

A revised record must be prepared "if there are any significant changes to the external walls." Onward disclosure to the fire and rescue authority is addressed in Regulation 11.

For your assessment: this is the regulatory backstop for the work you are already doing on external walls under the Fire Safety Act 2021. Your assessment of the external wall system feeds directly into the Regulation 5 record. Note in your report whether the responsible person has the record in place and what it contains. If external wall construction is a credible concern, your recommendation for a specialist PAS 9980 external wall assessment is the correct route — your role is to flag the need, not to carry out the specialist appraisal.

Regulation 6: Floor Plans and Building Plan

For high-rise residential buildings, the responsible person must prepare a plan for each floor of the building and a single-page building plan. Floor plans must identify the location of all lifts and key fire-fighting equipment. The building plan must show access routes, stairways, dry- and wet-rising main inlets/outlets, smoke control systems, and evacuation alert system controls. Hard copies go in the secure information box (Regulation 4). The provision of documents to the local fire and rescue authority is dealt with under Regulation 11.

For your assessment: verify plans exist, are current, and are stored where Regulation 6 requires. Plans that have not been updated after material building changes (e.g. internal reconfiguration, new escape route, removed compartmentation wall) are a finding.

Regulation 7: Lifts and Essential Fire-Fighting Equipment

For high-rise residential buildings, the responsible person must conduct monthly checks of:

• Lifts for use by firefighters
• Evacuation lifts
• Essential fire-fighting equipment

A routine check verifies that equipment "is in efficient working order and in good repair." Where a fault cannot be fixed within 24 hours of being discovered, the responsible person must promptly notify the local fire and rescue authority electronically. Records of the monthly checks must be made accessible to residents.

For your assessment: check that the monthly inspection log exists, is up to date, and covers the equipment in scope. Faults sitting unfixed for more than 24 hours that were not reported to the fire and rescue authority are a significant finding. Where the responsible person has not understood the 24-hour notification trigger, document it.

Regulation 8: Wayfinding Signage

For high-rise residential buildings, the responsible person must ensure that the building contains "clear markings of floor identification and identification of domestic premises." The markings must be "visible both in low level lighting conditions or when illuminated with a torch."

For your assessment: physical check on site. Photograph the signage on a sample of landings and confirm visibility under low-light conditions. Missing or damaged signage is a finding.

Regulation 9: Information to Residents

Regulation 9 applies more broadly than the high-rise regulations. It covers any multi-occupied residential building that contains two or more sets of domestic premises AND contains common parts through which residents would need to evacuate. The responsible person must provide residents with fire safety instructions including:

• How to report a fire
• The strategy for evacuating the building (stay-put or simultaneous evacuation, as relevant)
• Any other instruction that tells residents what they must do when a fire has occurred

Instructions must be given to all new residents promptly and to all residents within each 12-month cycle.

For your assessment: confirm a written set of instructions exists, was distributed within the last 12 months, and matches the evacuation strategy you are assessing in your fire risk assessment. A mismatch between the written strategy in your assessment and the instructions distributed to residents is a serious finding — it means residents have been told the wrong thing to do.

Regulation 10: Fire Doors

Regulation 10 has two layers.

Information requirements (all multi-occupied buildings with two or more domestic premises): The responsible person must give residents information that "fire doors should be kept shut when not in use" and that residents should not tamper with self-closing mechanisms. New residents get the information promptly; all residents get the information within each 12-month cycle.

Inspection duties (buildings over 11 metres containing multiple domestic units):

• Communal area fire doors require inspection at least every 3 months
• Individual flat entrance doors must be checked at least every 12 months, with records of access attempts where the resident does not provide access
• All checks must verify that the self-closing devices for the doors are working

Note the 11-metre threshold for the inspection duty — different from the 18-metre / seven-storey threshold for "high-rise" elsewhere in the Regulations. An 11-to-18-metre building falls within the inspection duty but outside Regulations 4 through 8.

For your assessment: check the inspection log against the required cadence for the building's height class. Doors with self-closers removed, wedged, or failing are findings that should be in your action plan with a short timescale. Where access attempts on flat entrance doors are not documented, the responsible person is not meeting the Regulation 10 record-keeping requirement. For a methodology covering frame, seal, and closer assessment, see our fire door inspection guide.

Regulation 11: Documents to FRA

Regulation 11 is a single short provision: it requires the documents specified in Regulation 5 and Regulation 6 to be provided to the local fire and rescue authority by electronic means.

Note on Regulation 12: Regulation 12 is a Secretary of State review provision — it requires the Secretary of State to review the Regulations themselves within 5 years of commencement, not a duty on responsible persons to review their own records. Don't confuse the two.

For your assessment: Regulation 11 is an administrative duty on the responsible person rather than a substantive fire safety duty, but you should still record whether they have understood and acted on it. A responsible person who has prepared a Regulation 5 external wall record but never sent it to the local fire and rescue authority has half-met their obligations.

How These Regulations Change Your Fire Risk Assessment Scope

Your fire risk assessment under Article 9 of the Fire Safety Order is unchanged in form. What has changed is the evidence base you draw on, and the findings you record. Practical impact:

• Section 4 (fire protection measures) of your PAS 79:2020-structured report: now includes wayfinding signage and lifts/equipment monthly check records where applicable.
• Section 5 (management of fire safety): now includes the Regulation 9 resident information cycle and the Regulation 4 secure information box.
• Section 8 (significant findings): any deficiency against Regulations 4 through 12 is a significant finding that goes into your action plan with a timescale.
• Section 9 (action plan): deficiencies attract short timescales — the Regulations are now in force, not coming into force.
• Documentation: your report should reference the Regulations by name, identify which apply to the building, and record evidence of compliance or non-compliance.

The 30 to 60 minutes of additional time we noted in our Fire Safety Act 2021 walkthrough is the floor, not the ceiling. Buildings where the responsible person is uncertain of their duties may need substantially more time on site to document Regulation-by-Regulation evidence.

What Has Not Changed

Worth saying directly: the Regulations do not change who the responsible person is, what a "suitable and sufficient" assessment looks like in principle, or the substance of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 duties. They are additional duties on the responsible person, with corresponding additional evidence for you to gather.

Summary

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/547) came into force on 23 January 2023. They impose duties on responsible persons in multi-occupied residential buildings — concentrated on high-rise residential buildings (18 metres or seven storeys) but with the Regulation 9 information duty and the over-11-metre fire door inspection duty extending more broadly. Your fire risk assessment should now check each applicable Regulation, document compliance evidence, and record deficiencies as significant findings with action timescales.

If your client is a responsible person who has only just heard of these Regulations, the priority order is: install/stock the secure information box (Reg 4), prepare the external wall record (Reg 5), establish the lifts and equipment check regime (Reg 7), and start the 12-month resident information cycle (Reg 9). Fire door inspections (Reg 10) should be running already in buildings over 11 metres.

AssessKit is being built with PAS 79:2020-structured templates that capture Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 evidence as standard, so the Regulation-by-Regulation check appears in your significant findings without manual rework. Join the waitlist to be notified when we launch.

Sources

• The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — SI 2022/547 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Regulation 3 — Meaning of high-rise residential building
• Regulation 10 — Fire doors
• Fire Safety Act 2021
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005