What's New

Cheshire Fire Authority (CFA) has successfully prosecuted a hotel owner in Widnes who was accused of putting profit before people and having a flagrant disregard for rules designed to keep his guests and staff safe.

A report produced by a working group set up as part of the post-Grenfell Competence Steering Group has been welcomed by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC).

As we have reported already this month, the Government continues to push ahead with its responses to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations and to spell out the implications of the coming into force of the Fire Safety Act 2021 (see Government makes progress with its plans to improve fire safety).

We reported recently on Government proposals to shake up fire services in England (see White Paper sets out plans to reform England’s Fire and Rescue Service) and to take forward certain Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations (see Home Office invites comments on revised proposals for Emergency Evacuation Plans).

In June 2021, the Home Office launched a consultation into proposals to implement the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations on Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) in high-rise residential buildings.

The Home Office has published a White Paper, Reforming our Fire and Rescue Service: Building Professionalism, Boosting Performance and Strengthening Governance, and launched a consultation seeking views on these proposals to introduce system-wide reform of services in England.

The Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) Product Availability Group (PAG) has issued its latest statement regarding the supply of construction products.

Mainly spread by wild animals in parts of west or central Africa, and first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, monkeypox has suddenly appeared in 14 countries with, for the first time, the virus being found in people with no clear connection to the usual countries of origin.

The UK REACH Regulations have finally been consolidated into one piece of legal text.

The commencement of the Fire Safety Act 2021 has brought a strong message from the Fire Sector Federation (FSF) as it warned that fire risk assessors, together with the building owners and safety managers who employ them, face additional challenges in satisfying new legal requirements to meet fire safety competency standards.