You are the responsible person. Here's what the Fire Safety Act 2021 actually requires you to do

On 14 June 2017, a fire started in a fourth-floor flat at Grenfell Tower in west London. Seventy-two people died. The subsequent inquiry found systemic failures across the construction industry, the regulatory system, and the bodies responsible for managing the building's safety. One of those failures was a gap in the law itself.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — the primary legislation governing fire safety in non-domestic premises and the common parts of residential buildings — did not clearly require responsible persons to assess the risks posed by external walls, cladding, or flat entrance doors. Grenfell exposed what that omission could mean in practice.

The Fire Safety Act 2021 was designed to close that gap. It received Royal Assent on 29 April 2021 and came into force in England and Wales on 16 May 2022. It does not replace the Fire Safety Order — it amends and clarifies it, bringing previously excluded elements explicitly within scope.

Despite being in force for over two years, its obligations remain poorly understood among building owners and managing agents. And it did not arrive alone. Two further pieces of legislation followed, adding obligations that many responsible persons are still not aware of.

This article covers all three phases of reform — what they require, who they apply to, and what compliance looks like in practice.

The Fire Safety Act 2021

The Fire Safety Order places most of its duties on the "responsible person" — a legal role defined by who has control of the premises, not just who owns them.

You are the responsible person if you are:

• The owner of the building (for non-domestic parts and common areas)

• The landlord, freeholder, or managing agent with control of the premises

• A facilities manager, building manager, or anyone else exercising control

In multi-occupied residential buildings — any building with two or more sets of domestic premises — responsibility often falls to the freeholder or their managing agent. Where control is shared, the Fire Safety Act is explicit: responsible persons must cooperate and coordinate with one another. A fire in one part of a building threatens all of it.

Important:  The Act does not apply to single private dwellings. It applies to any building with two or more domestic premises in England and Wales, regardless of height. If you manage a converted Victorian terrace split into two flats, you are within scope. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate fire safety legislation.

If there is no other responsible person in relation to a premises, the owner is the responsible person by default — including for unoccupied buildings.

Are you the responsible person?

Before the Fire Safety Act 2021, fire risk assessments in multi-occupied residential buildings focused on the common parts. External walls and flat entrance doors existed in a legal grey area — there was no clear statutory requirement to include them.

The Act resolved that ambiguity. The Fire Safety Order now explicitly applies to the following in any building with two or more domestic premises:

• The structure and external walls of the building, including cladding, balconies, windows, insulation and fixings

• Individual flat entrance doors between domestic premises and the common parts

• The common parts of the building

This means that if your current fire risk assessment does not address these elements, it is no longer legally compliant. That is not a paperwork issue — it is a legal exposure issue.

The Act does not automatically require every responsible person to commission an entirely new fire risk assessment. Where an existing assessment already competently covered external walls and flat entrance doors, it may stand. But where it did not — and in practice, most assessments carried out before 2022 did not — it needs to be updated.

Practical note:  The government's Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool (FRAPT) was developed to help responsible persons assess where to focus their updating efforts. It is available via GOV.UK and provides a framework for prioritising FRA reviews based on building characteristics.

What the Act changed: three elements now explicitly in scope

One of the most consequential — and most misunderstood — changes introduced by the Act concerns flat entrance doors. These are the doors between individual flats and the common parts of the building: the corridor, the stairwell, the lobby.

Before the Act, most building managers treated these doors as a maintenance issue. Fix them when they break. Replace them when they deteriorate. Record it if the process happened to generate paperwork.

The Act changed that. Flat entrance doors are now within the formal scope of the Fire Safety Order, which means responsible persons must:

• Include them within the fire risk assessment

• Ensure they are maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order, and in good repair

• Keep records of inspection, maintenance, and repair

The shift matters because it is no longer sufficient to fix a door. You must be able to demonstrate that the door was inspected, that any issues were identified, and that action was taken. Fixes without records fail an enforcement audit.

Flat entrance doors: from reactive repairs to controlled inspection

Phase 2 of the reform came into force on 23 January 2023. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 were introduced under Article 24 of the Fire Safety Order, implementing the majority of the recommendations made by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report that required a change in law.

The obligations are tiered by building height. The higher the building, the more extensive the requirements.

For all multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more domestic premises:

• Provide residents with fire safety instructions, including how to report a fire and what to do in the event of one, based on the building's evacuation strategy

• Provide residents with information on the importance of fire doors in fire safety

For residential buildings above 11 metres in height:

• Annual checks of every individual flat entrance door

• Quarterly checks of all fire doors in the communal parts of the building

• Records of all checks must be kept

For high-rise residential buildings (18 metres or 7 or more storeys):

• Install a secure information box containing a hard copy of building floor plans and the responsible person's contact details

• Provide local fire and rescue services with electronic floor plans and details of the external wall system

• Monthly checks of fire alarms and detection systems, lifts, smoke control systems, fire suppression systems, and automatic door systems

• Any faults that cannot be resolved must be reported to the local fire and rescue service — the responsible person must also notify the service once the fault is resolved

Fire alarm note:  The Regulations classify fire detection and alarm systems as "essential firefighting equipment" in high-rise residential buildings. Monthly checks are a legal requirement, records must be kept, and residents can request access to those records. This is one of the most specific and least-publicised obligations in the post-Grenfell reform package.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: obligations by height

Phase 3 came into force on 1 October 2023. Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 made further amendments to the Fire Safety Order, completing a reform programme that had been building since 2021.

The key changes from this phase:

• Full written fire risk assessments are now mandatory for all responsible persons, regardless of how many employees the organisation has. Previously, written records were only required above a certain headcount threshold.

• Enhanced cooperation and coordination duties between responsible persons in shared buildings. Where multiple parties have control of different parts of a building, they must actively work together — not simply coexist.

• Stronger expectations around the competence of those carrying out fire safety work. Responsible persons who delegate duties must demonstrate due diligence in who they appoint — and the choice of an uncertified or unqualified contractor is increasingly difficult to defend if something goes wrong.

Responsible persons in England must now comply with the Fire Safety Order 2005 as amended by all three phases simultaneously. These are not separate obligations — they are a cumulative, interlocking set of requirements.

Section 156 Building Safety Act 2022: what changed in October 2023

The Fire Safety Act explicitly strengthened the enforcement powers of fire and rescue services. They can now take action where a responsible person has not addressed external walls, windows, or flat entrance doors — areas where, before the Act, their hands were tied.

Prosecution is a real outcome, not a theoretical one. The consequences of non-compliance include enforcement notices, prohibition orders, and in serious cases, criminal prosecution. The government made clear when introducing the Act that its purpose was to "empower fire services to take enforcement action and hold building owners to account."

What enforcement commonly finds:

• Fire risk assessments that do not cover external walls or flat entrance doors

• No records of door inspections or maintenance activity

• Action plans with no documented close-out evidence

• Responsible persons who cannot demonstrate who they appointed to carry out fire safety work or why

A defensible compliance position does not require perfection. It requires evidence. If you can produce the following, you are in a substantially stronger position:

• A current fire risk assessment with a clearly documented scope, including external walls and flat entrance doors

• A live action plan with named owners, deadlines, and close-out records

• Flat entrance door inspection logs (annual for buildings above 11m)

• Communal fire door check records (quarterly for buildings above 11m)

• A documented rationale for any decision not to commission a deeper external wall assessment

• For high-rise buildings: monthly fire alarm check logs and any fault notifications made to the fire service

The direction of travel

The three phases of reform described in this article are not the end point. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report, published in September 2024, made further recommendations — including mandatory licensing for contractors working on higher-risk buildings and a single regulatory body overseeing building safety, product certification, and contractor competence.

The regulatory environment for building owners and those responsible for fire safety in residential buildings will continue to tighten. The practical implication is straightforward: the time to get compliance records in order is now, before enforcement activity rather than after it.

If you have questions about the fire detection and alarm obligations that fall within this framework — including the monthly check requirements for high-rise buildings — the LFS team is available to advise.

What enforcement looks like now

The three phases of reform described in this article are not the end point. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report, published in September 2024, made further recommendations — including mandatory licensing for contractors working on higher-risk buildings and a single regulatory body overseeing building safety, product certification, and contractor competence.

The regulatory environment for building owners and those responsible for fire safety in residential buildings will continue to tighten. The practical implication is straightforward: the time to get compliance records in order is now, before enforcement activity rather than after it.

If you have questions about the fire detection and alarm obligations that fall within this framework — including the monthly check requirements for high-rise buildings — the LFS team is available to advise.

Key sources and further reading

• Fire Safety Act 2021 — legislation.gov.uk

• Fire Safety Act 2021 factsheets — GOV.UK (gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-act-2021)

• Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/547

• Check your fire safety responsibilities under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — GOV.UK

• Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 FAQs — National Fire Chiefs Council (nfcc.org.uk)

• London Fire Brigade — Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 guidance

• Fire Safety Act 2021 analysis — 39 Essex Chambers

• Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report — grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk

• Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report — grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk

The direction of travel