GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION brought forward to make it clear who’s ultimately responsible for safety in high-rise residential buildings across the nation is now on the verge of becoming law after MPs sitting in the House of Commons voted down a further proposed House of Lords amendment to the Fire Safety Bill.

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THE HOUSING, Communities and Local Government Committee has urged the Government to re-commit to the principle that leaseholders should not have to pay for the removal of unsafe cladding from their homes. It also calls on the Government to establish a Comprehensive Building Safety Fund that addresses the true scale of fire safety issues. Finance for that proposal should be provided by Government and the building industry.

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A NEW guide that outlines the key updates relating to cable pathways has been published by wiring devices and cable management systems specialist Legrand UK and Ireland following updates to a number of key industry regulations.

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RESIDENTS AND building owners are set to benefit from a new Code of Practice specifically designed by the Government for those professionals tasked with assessing buildings’ external walls and cladding systems. Both the Government and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) are now calling for as many interested parties as possible to deliver their considered views on the proposed content.

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NETWORK RAIL has been fined £696,666 after pleading guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to protect the safety of staff following an incident at the Godinton substation in Kent at the tail end of 2018.

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DETECTORTESTERS (NO Climb Products Ltd), the designer and manufacturer of test equipment for fire detection systems, is celebrating confirmation that the Hertfordshire-based business has been named as the winner of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.

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RESIDENTS ACROSS England will be better protected as the Government now determines to take the next step towards ensuring that those materials used to build the nation’s homes are safe and properly tested. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has appointed two experts to lead an independent review of the system for testing construction products. Former Government advisor and construction expert Paul Morrell OBE will be the chair of the independent panel, working alongside legal expert Anneliese Day QC.

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THE REASONS why automatic fire sprinklers should be a requirement in warehouses and distribution centres – in turn protecting national and local business continuity and resilience – are going to be outlined in the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association’s (BAFSA) fifth webinar of the year to date, which takes place on Thursday 6 May from 10.00 am until noon.

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IN THE wake of the catastrophic Grenfell Tower blaze, the Government is taking the next steps towards a safer future through the implementation of new fire and building safety regulations in England and Wales. With the proposed changes set to have a significant impact on those accountable for the management of residential tall buildings, a new partnership between Tall Building Fire Safety Limited and SFJ Awards is enabling stakeholders to remain compliant and competent.

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MORE CHARTERED surveying firms will now be able to obtain improved fire safety cover in their professional indemnity insurance (PII). The new approved minimum wording and insurance rules that came into effect earlier this month will mean that, from 1 May*, insurers must provide cover for fire safety** claims on a property of four storeys or less***.

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THE PUBLIC consultation process for the new Code of Practice for Fire Risk Appraisal and Assessment of External Wall Construction and Cladding of Existing Blocks of Flats is now open until 20 May 2021.

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THE NATIONAL Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has announced the launch of its Supervisory Leadership Development Programme which, alongside several other initiatives, has been commissioned through the NFCC’s Leadership project to support the development of leaders within the sector.

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THE SECURITY Systems and Alarms Inspection Board (SSAIB) has achieved accreditation for BAFE’s SP207 Scheme focused on Emergency Evacuation Systems. The latter are used by Fire and Rescue Services to prioritise evacuation from high-rise residential buildings and ensure that individuals at risk in endangered areas can be safely evacuated.

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THE FIRE Industry Association (FIA) has been working diligently on promoting the interests of the UK’s fire sector in relation to Brexit, focusing its attentions towards issues including the introduction of the UKCA mark and exporting scenarios. Now, the Trade Association is keen on asking its members and the wider industry for their views on how Brexit is impacting businesses.

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ACCORDING TO the Business Sprinkler Alliance, a fire that occurred in late February and which ripped through hundreds of rented units at a three-storey warehouse facility in Manchester has once again “brought into sharp focus” the wider impact of fire and the “vulnerability” of unsprinklered buildings.

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ESRI UK has unveiled the detail underpinning a new partnership with drone specialist heliguy designed to complete its end-to-end drone solution for the Emergency Services industry. The final piece in Esri UK’s strategy to offer all parts of the drone workflow, the partnership will provide customers with drone hardware, payloads and pilot training from heliguy combined with Esri’s drone flight planning, data capture, data processing and GIS software.

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THE CONTINUED need for The Fire Fighters Charity’s mental health support services has been highlighted with the publication of research claiming that 65% of the UK’s Fire and Rescue Service personnel have seen a deterioration in their mental health during the pandemic.

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THE INSTITUTION of Fire Engineers (IFE) has been working alongside Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures UK (CROSS-UK) with a view towards expanding the latter’s remit to include reporting on fire safety. Individuals are now able to share their concerns about – and experiences of – fire and structural safety through a confidential safety reporting system.

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RECENTLY, AN article authored by Lars Rohde (the Governor of Denmark’s National Bank) was published in The Financial Times and highlighted the fact that a bank’s capital buffer should work much like a sprinkler system. In other words, writes Iain Cox, it exists to ensure a bank can continue to provide credit in times of crisis, much like a sprinkler contains a fire prior to the arrival of the Fire and Rescue Service.

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FIRE CAN exert a devastating effect on organisations, with statistics suggesting that around 70% of businesses fail within three years of a major fire episode. Why, then, does it appear that so many care-focused organisations are taking risks when it comes to fire safety? iHASCO is stressing that care home owners and managers (and, indeed, all members of staff) must be trained in fire safety awareness and what to do if a fire episode should occur.

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