In the wake of the Grenfell tragedy, the focus is on the inquiry, what went wrong and how to prevent any type of repetition. The industry itself is under scrutiny about the cladding products used, and litigation is likely. There is, however, a risk that focus on a specific issue such as ACM cladding panels, however understandable, might cause a lack of consideration of the overall regulatory framework. Key to that is the relatively new and comprehensive fire safety regime encompassed in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 (RRO). This order has a number of implications for the industry, and its remit is much wider than either cladding or just building owners. 

The first thing to note is that the order was introduced in late 2006, so in relative terms is a new(ish) piece of legislation (bear in mind we only got national building regulation in 1961). It was intended to be comprehensive and to merge all manner of competing, confusing and perhaps inconsistent legislation that had grown up over a number of years. 

The RRO was intended to produce a single regime based on risk assessment, fire prevention and mitigation measures. The focus was on risk and compliance with continuing monitoring and maintenance of standards/protections. Under the RRO, the term “risk” is defined as being “the risk to the safety of persons from fire”.

One key issue here is: who has ultimate responsibility for the fire safety of a building?

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