Guidance

Fact sheet: Floor plans and building plan (regulation 6)

Updated 24 July 2023

Regulations made under Article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Purpose of this fact sheet

This fact sheet is not guidance and should not be read as such. It is intended to provide information about the regulations to residents and other interested parties.

What we have done

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 made it a legal requirement from 23 January 2023 for responsible persons of high-rise residential buildings^{[footnote 1]} in England to draw up and share electronically up-to-date floor plans identifying the location of key fire-fighting equipment with their local fire and rescue services. A plan will need to be prepared for each floor, but where floors are identical only one plan needs to be produced.

The responsible person is also required to provide their local fire and rescue services with an additional single page building plan which should include the location of all key fire-fighting equipment. The plans should be simple, to assist quick and critical decisions taken by operational fire-fighters during an incident.

Why we did it

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report found that on the night of the fire no plans of the internal layout of the building were available to the London Fire Brigade and the Inquiry felt that in other circumstances “lack of floor plans might easily have had far more serious consequences”. The Inquiry recommended that the owner and manager of every high-rise residential building (Recommendation 33.12(a)) be required by law to provide the fire and rescue service with up-to-date plans of every floor of the building identifying the location of key fire safety systems.^{[footnote 2]}

The floor plans and the additional single page building plan, which clearly indicates the location of key fire-fighting facilities such as dry risers, are to assist the local fire and rescue services in planning for and operational response to a fire.

Does part of this regulation go beyond the inquiry’s recommendation?

The regulation will fulfil the Inquiry’s recommendation on building plans and go beyond it with the additional single page building plan. Where we do not intend to implement (sharing paper copies of floor plans with fire and rescue services) we made this position clear in the Fire Safety Consultation 2020 and did not receive any objections. This position is proportionate and will help reduce administrative burdens.

Storage of hard copies

Hard copies of these plans should be kept in the secure information box on the premises. This is to provide fire-fighters with readily accessible information about the building. The hard copies can supplement the electronic copies of plans sent by responsible persons to the local fire and rescue services.

There is no requirement or intent for responsible persons to send a hard copy to their local fire and rescue service.

Level of detail of plans

Floor plans

The regulations require that the plans provided to the Fire and Rescue Service should be a reasonably accurate reflection of each floor of the building.

The plan must clearly indicate to firefighters which floor(s) it relates to and show the location of the firefighting equipment set out in the regulations.

Single page plan

This plan should provide the Fire and Rescue Service with an overview of the building, access points and environs.

Both plans

They should be reviewed regularly and should be updated if the layout of the building or the location of the equipment identified on them changes. When considered together both plans should identify the location of all lifts and identify if the lift is one for use by firefighters or an evacuation lift.

Examples of plans are included in ‘The Code of Practice for the Provision of Premises Information Boxes in Residential Buildings’ (pg. 22 – 29) produced jointly by the FIA and the NFCC.

1. As defined in The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 as a building at least 18 metres in height or at least seven storeys ↩

2. Pg. 774 HC 49-IV – The Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 1 Report - Volume 4 of 4 ↩