Life cycle support for fire safety building regulations

For many projects, Approved Document B is the principal source of building regulations fire safety guidance. Published in two volumes, it covers dwellings and buildings other than dwellings, and provides statutory guidance against the five functional requirements of Part B of the Building Regulations 2010. This includes:

• B1 Means of warning and escape

• B2 Internal fire spread (linings) 

• B3 internal fire spread (structure)

• B4 External fire spread

• B5 Fire service access

This guidance is regularly reviewed and updated by the Building Safety Regulator, with more recent amendments including provisions for sprinklers in care homes, alongside smaller compartment sizes and self-closing devices for doors. Further amendments in September 2026 introduced second staircases for residential buildings of 18 metres and above, and a phase transition from outdated national classification tests (such as BS 467) to unified European systems (BS EN 13501) is planned for 2029. If you are constructing a new building, extending an existing one, or undertaking material alterations, demonstrating compliance with Approved Document B is a significant step towards securing Building Regulations approval.

Wherever a building is erected, extended, or has undergone a material change of use, Regulation 38 of the Building Regulations 2010 requires the person carrying out the work to assemble a package of fire safety information and give it to the responsible person of the premises. This must happen no later than the date of completion or occupation (whichever comes first), and is the formal point at which design and construction knowledge is legally required to be transferred to building management.

Only once this handover has been completed is the responsible person considered to have enough data to carry out a detailed fire risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO). Meeting Regulation 38 fire safety requirements also underpins the golden thread of fire safety information that must be maintained for the remainder of the building’s life.

Once a building is complete and occupied, responsibility shifts from the Building Regulations to RRFSO, which places an ongoing legal duty on responsible persons to assess and manage fire risk through a fire risk assessment. Where a major alteration is being carried out on an occupied building, both regimes can apply simultaneously, and the information generated during the construction stage becomes essential evidence for that ongoing assessment.

For higher-risk buildings – defined as those at least 18 metres in height or with at least seven storeys, containing two or more residential units, a hospital, or a care home – the Building Safety Act 2022 introduces a considerably more stringent fire safety regime, overseen by the Building Safety Regulator acting as the building control authority. Under this regulation, fire safety must be formally evidenced at each stage of a project through a gateway process, from an initial fire statement at planning through to a completion certificate before occupation.

This evidence centres on the fire and emergency file – a live record of the fire safety measures designed and installed – alongside the golden thread of information kept accessible throughout occupation. For the principal designer (Building Regulations duty holder), this means ensuring fire safety is planned throughout the design and construction stages, with information passed on accurately as the project progresses. A principal accountable person is then responsible for managing fire safety risks on an ongoing basis, including reporting any fire safety-related occurrences to the regulator, shifting compliance from a design-stage requirement into a continuous legal duty.

British Standards are technical documents that set out detailed specifications, testing methods, and classification criteria for a specific building element. They are not law in themselves, and the Building Regulations do not require every British Standard to be followed. Instead, Approved Document B often names a particular standard as an accepted route to satisfying one of its requirements, so meeting that standard becomes the practical evidence a building has achieved the outcome the regulations demand.

The golden thread brings together fire safety information created at the design stage, the evidence gathered during construction, and the records needed to manage a building safely in occupation, so an accurate picture of a building’s fire safety strategy exists throughout its life. For higher-risk buildings, maintaining a golden thread is a legal requirement under the Building Safety Act 2022, with a principal accountable person responsible for keeping this information accurate, secure, and accessible to those who need it.

Outside of this scheme, there is no equivalent statutory duty by name, but the direction of travel is clear. Under Regulation 38, fire safety information is already mandated to be handed over at completion, and the RRFSO requires it to be kept current through ongoing risk assessment, meaning most buildings are already expected to operate under the practical building blocks of a golden thread.