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Home Office republishes controversial fire safety guidance despite legal threat
The Home Office has republished controversial guidance on fire safety in blocks of flats with a caveat added to a section on evacuation plans for disabled residents.
The guidance, titled ‘Fire Safety in Purpose Built Blocks of Flats’, has been influential in dictating approaches to fire safety in the social housing sector since its publication in 2011.
However, the document has been subject to criticism since the Grenfell Tower fire for the level of faith it places in the ‘stay put’ policy and sections that appear to play down the need to provide evacuation plans for disabled residents.
This led the Local Government Association (LGA) – which previously hosted the guidance – to remove it in April 2021 after noting that it was out of date.
Plans to republish the guidance were met with strong criticism from bereaved families, one of whom said they would seek a judicial review should it be reinstated.
The guidance around personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) contradicts recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase one report that the government has said it will implement.
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Caveating the new guidance, the Home Office said it has commissioned a revision to the guidance as part of its overhaul of existing Fire Safety Order guidance which it expects to publish later this year.
It added: “In the interim, it is widely recognised that many of the aspects regarding fire safety in blocks of flats is still relevant and useful for readers. We think it is important that fire safety professionals have access to this guide.”
The section on personal evacuation plans that has come under scrutiny since the Grenfell Tower fire has since been ’greyed out’ and flagged with a note while the Home Office prepares to publish a revised version later this year.
Following earlier legal action, a separate consultation is underway to produce new guidance on this issue.
The department said that the guidance should be read alongside the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s consolidated advice note and the National Fire Chiefs Council’s guidance on simultaneous evacuation.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has admitted that it did not provide PEEPs for residents, while the ongoing inquiry recently heard that the tower’s fire risk assessor advised the tenant management organisation not to tell the fire authorities that the tower contained disabled tenants.
In his first phase report, inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick said that owners and managers of high-rise blocks should “be required by law to prepare personal emergency evacuation plans for residents who may struggle to do so independently, with information about them stored in the premises’ information box”.
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