Is EWS1 the same as an FRAEW?

Following difficulties with being able to obtain and interpret assessments under the series of Advice Notes from MHCLG (now called the Department of Levelling-Up Housing and Communities, DLUHC), in an effort to simplify the process for building managers and mortgage lenders, RICS first issued the EWS1 process in December 2019.   Further guidance around the EWS1 process has been issued which clarifies which buildings it applies to.  This means that generally it will apply to residential and mixed used buildings over 18 metres, but also smaller buildings with particular types of unsafe cladding.  For simpler buildings where it can be easily proven that the cladding and balconies meets the requirements of Part B of the building regulations (specifically the November 2018 update which requires that all cladding, and attachments such as balconies must be A1 or A2-s1,d0).  Whilst the Part B of the building regulations has been updated further since, including updates in March 2024, the 2018 update was significant in that it introduced the prescriptive requirement for materials in the external wall (including balconies and decking) to meet the requirements of Classification A2-s1, d0 or Class A1.  Where this requirement is not met, a more detailed assessment will be required in order to determine whether the building requires remediation or not.  It is essential that an EWS1 form is completed by a person who meets the competency requirements to do so.  The outcome of the EWS1 process is:

Option A (A1,A2,A3)* where the materials are unlikely to contribute to the spread of fire.  In the case of option A3, there may be works need to replace combustible materials to attachments (usually replacement of timber decking or plastic composite decking to the balconies with non combustible decking, such as aluminium decking or non combustible composite such as Blazeboard),

Or

Option B (B1,B2) where there are combustible materials, and they are either deemed to be either not a concern (B1) or that remedial works will be needed (B2). 

This process lacked a detailed methodology for making a decision particularly between B1 and B2. 

Therefore in January 2022, PAS 9980 was published, which provides a methodology to carry out Fire Risk Appraisals of External Wall construction (FRAEW). 

This not only provides a more nuanced assessment of risk, taking into account various factors in a structured way, but also provides a structure for recommending temporary mitigations and proposed actions as well as the reasons for their recommendation. 

If I only have an EWS1 do I now need an FRAEW as well?

There has been an update to the guidance in relation to the use of PAS 9980 in 2024, and it remains the best way for competent persons to carry out Fire Risk Appraisals of External Wall construction in existing buildings (FRAEW).

This does not necessarily mean that an existing competently prepared EWS1 is obsolete.  The EWS1 is designed to last 5 years.  In most cases it would be unreasonable for a competently prepared EWS1 on a building which is established to be low risk to be prematurely superseded by PAS 9980.  But any new assessments should use the PAS 9980 format.  It is important to consider that the assessment process of PAS 9980 may yield a different result than the EWS1 form.

It is also important to note that PAS 9980 is not a method to establish compliance with building regulations.  Any new buildings must comply with the building regulations in force on the Effective Date upon which they were approved.   

Is an FRAEW the same as a Fire Risk Assessment?

No.  A Fire Risk Assessment prepared by the Responsible Person is intended to assess the general fire precautions to comply with the Fire Safety Order.  This should make reference to and take account of the findings of an FRAEW.  Usually a Fire Risk Assessor will not possess the specific competences to be able to carry out the FRAEW themselves, as these are two different areas of expertise.  In addition to taking account of the findings of the FRAEW, the Fire Risk Assessor will need information from the Responsible Person about the actions they have taken to address the mitigation and recommendations identified in the FRAEW. 

Is a Fire Risk Assessment the same as a Building Safety Risk Assessment?

No.  There is no set process for a Building Safety Risk Assessment, and it by definition will require input from a number of different specialisms, which will usually include:

• The building management (Responsible Person)
• The Fire Risk Assessor (in relation risk assessment in accordance with the Fire Safety Order)
• Structural Risk Assessor (in relation to assessment of structural risks, there is no set format for this yet established, but appropriate specialists such as Chartered Structural Engineers have access to guidance from the IStructE to assist them).
• Fire Risk Appraisals of the External Wall

This team of specialists will have determined the inherent risks in the associated parts of the building relevant to their specialisms (and each others). 

Then there is a process of analysing what could go wrong.  This relies on data and input from various stakeholders to identify the potential scenarios.  This should take account of all relevant factors, including:

• Tenure
• Modifications, deterioration and damage
• Other uses and adjacent uses (e.g. a takeway kitchen on the ground floor)
• Management and maintenance arrangements
• Safety management processes

The outcome should include a system of grading the highest risk actions and identifying actions to be taken to avoid or minimise these risks. 

The process and outcome should be recorded and made available to residents. 

*Note: The A1, A2 and A3 Options in EWS1 are different from the A1 and A2-s1,d0 ratings applied in Approved Document B (Regulation 7).  The A1, A2 and A3 Options in EWS1 are specific to the EWS1 form and do not have any application outside of the EWS1 process.  Whereas the  A1 and A2-s1,d0 classifications referred to in Approved Document B are combustibility ratings for materials when tested in accordance with EN13501-1.  EN13501-1 is an adopted European classification system which grades the classification of materials depending on their resistance to combustibility.  A1 is the highest rating (applies to Blazeboard).  Grade F is the lowest rating (i.e most flammable).  In the example of balcony decking, Grade F would apply to plastic composite decking (some may be slightly better than F, but even with additives plastic composite decking cannot achieve the A1 and A2-s1,d0 rating required by Regulation 7).  Aluminium decking can achieve the A2-s1,d0 with the right coatings.  It is also important that all of the components of the decking system are rated to A1 or  A2-s1,d0 as well.  This test applies to each individual component of the decking system such as the non-combustible pedestals, fixing clips and screws etc.  So it is important to use a fully certified system.  BBA certified materials provide the best level of assurance that all of the materials are fully certified.

This article has been updated

23 September 2024

The FIRE SAFETY REGULATIONS (England) 2022 came into force on 23^rd January 2023.  These are legal requirements which apply to all high-rise residential buildings .  Following publication of the Fire Safety Act, paving the way, the regulations have been laid under article 24 of the Fire Safety Order 2005 and bring together previous guidance which is now mandatory.

The regulations bring about obligations for landlords of residential buildings over 18metres or 7 floors.

The requirements include:

It is compulsory to provide a Secure Information Box

• This is a red aluminium or steel non-combustible box which holds plans of the building showing where all the key entrances, exits, fire safety equipment and any special hazards are.
• The box should be placed at the main access point to the building, or at a location otherwise agreed with the Fire and Rescue service, which for sites with 24/7 management may be in the management office (within the building)
• The box must be reasonably secure (appropriate to the location of the box)
• The box must contain the name and address of the Responsible Person
• The box must contain the name and contact details of other such persons necessary to facilitate the Responsible Person
• The box contents must inspected at least annually (to ensure that the information remains present and up to date copies of all the necessary information are included).

The information contained within the box forms part of the Golden Thread of information.  Therefore Residents are entitled to view the information if they have a need to do so.  PLEASE NOTE: Some contents of the Secure Information Box should contain information about residents with mobility impairments that could affect their ability to escape if there is a fire affecting their apartment, this information will be Confidential and should be kept only for viewing by those with a statutory duty requiring them to have access to the information volunteered by the resident (for example the Fire Brigade).

Information about the design and materials of external walls

• A mandatory form containing information about the design of the building needs to be completed and sent to the Fire and Rescue Service. This form, once completed, will provide basic information about the design and what the external walls are made of, so that the fire authorities can review this information and make judgements about risk and how to tackle a fire in the event of an incident.
• This will include information about flammable cladding, combustible decking, stacked wooden balconies and combustible insulation.
• A copy of this form can be found here: Link to template

Simple Plans for the Fire and Rescue Service

• These are the plans that should be placed in the Secure Information Box as laid out above
• Copies must also be provided electronically to the Fire and Rescue service
• Information about how to prepare these plans is provided by the National Fire Chiefs Council

Lifts and other essential fire fighting equipment

• There is a new mandatory requirement for monthly checks, levelled at lifts and other essential fire fighting equipment.
• There is a new mandatory procedure that any fault in lifts, fire alarms, evacuation systems and door release mechanisms not rectified within 24 hours must be reported to the Fire Service. Reports to the Fire Service are done via an online portal provided by the local Fire and Rescue Service.

Wayfinding

• Clear floor level markings on each level are now mandatory, this is to be located in the stair core and must display the floor number, and the apartment numbers on that floor with arrows pointing in which direction the respective apartments are located. More guidance on the design of this is located on page 106 and 107 of the latest Approved Document B here.
• Note that this is the latest version of Approved Document B: Fire Safety. Normally your building only needs to comply with the building regulations that were relevant at the time it was built.  However this new Regulation effectively retrospectively implements a section of the latest version of Approved Document B: Fire Safety.  Note that this only applies to this section of Approved Document B: Fire Safety, it does not change the Building Regulations for the rest of your building.

Information which Landlords must provide to residents

• The Landlord must provide clear fire safety instructions to residents about what to do in case of fire. This will include the evacuation strategy and escape stairs for the building, how to report a fire and anything else that you need to do in the case of a fire. This should be provided in accordance with the Resident Engagement Strategy.  The Responsible Person should have a Resident Engagement Strategy which includes information about how residents are involved in building safety decisions and how that information is provided.  For example, the fire safety instructions should be included in the homeowners pack when the resident moves in, however PLEASE NOTE, the evacuation strategy could have changed, so residents should make sure they have up to date communications from the Responsible Person about what to do in case of fire.  This should also be provided in areas about the building (such as next to the lifts).

New quarterly checks on Fire Doors

• It is important that
  • Fire doors to be kept shut
  • Do not tamper with self closers
  • Residents should report any faults to the responsible person
• The Responsible person must use best endeavours to undertake checks on apartment entrance doors annually and keep records of steps taken to carry out these checks.
• Checks on communal doors must be done every three months.

The reason for this new requirement is that the normal stay-put-policy relies on the performance of fire doors.  In Grenfell it was found that the fire doors did not perform anywhere close to the required duration of fire resistance.

Fire doors (timber, steel and aluminium etc) by their nature are exposed to wear and tear, and relatively small defects can have a significant impact on their performance.  Clearly if they don’t close properly, there will be a major failure of the door.  But if the gaps at the top and sides are over 4mm, tests have shown that this would significantly adversely affect the performance of the door in fire.  If you have information which confirms that the door installed is the correct door in line with the Fire Strategy (most commonly an apartment front entrance door will be required to be FD30s (30minutes integrity with smoke seals), and that it was competently installed in the first place, then any defects are likely to be as a result of wear and tear, damage to the timber or shrinkage of the timber.  Key components such a drop-down door seals and door closers have a finite lifespan and must be checked for correct operation.  A competent person on behalf of the landlord should inspect the fire doors and keep records about any failures.  If your apartment front entrance door is defective, you will need to arrange a competent specialist to carry out the work. Note, that if your apartment front door is clearly defective or doesn’t close properly, it is important that you report this to the Responsible Person and take urgent action to have it repaired.

P.S. If you want to make sure that your decking is fully compliant with all fire safety requirements and will look and feel great, you can contact us at www.blazeboard.co.uk or email us at info@blazeboard.co.uk or give us a call at 01442 894965.

Following the tragic events of Grenfell, Dame Judith Hackitt chaired the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety.  During the review it was found that, it was common for an Architect to write a specification that would describe the performance and aesthetics desired, and so may call for example: “non-combustible decking, to approved sample, Blazeboard or similar”.  Blazeboard is not available in non-combustible specification, so the balcony specialist contractor may have proposed samples of Blazeboard which achieves the desired aesthetic appearance or a range of Aluminium decking, such as Alideck or Mydek which achieves the performance requirement.  The balcony specialist contractor would then usually provide datasheets for all of these at the time.  The Architect and employer would then choose one of these samples.  But when the specification and drawings were rarely updated to the final agreed products before being handed over to the Accountable Person at the end, and so it wasn’t always clear (in this example) what kind of non-combustible decking the balconies actually ended up with.  Furthermore, the information about the pedestals and support structure could be completely missing too.  So if future refurbishment work is needed, often expensive investigation works were needed to establish what was actually installed.  Dame Judith noted that this type of occurrence was common and so changes had to be made.  

One of the key recommendations made by Dame Judith was to establish a Golden Thread of key information needed to manage a building safely.  The Golden Thread is a single master set of information from the design intent, development and any subsequent changes and preserved and used to support ongoing management and any safety improvements needed in the future of the building.  The concept of the Golden Thread has now been put into law in the Building Safety Act 2022.  There will be some secondary legislation which provides more details about what exactly is required.  The timeline of this is not fully clear but it is expected that the secondary legislation will be released around April 2023, and by April 2024 (via the Gateway System), building projects can be stopped if it is not in place, and Accountable Persons will be accountable in the case of existing buildings. 

What does the Golden Thread actually look like?

There has been no prescriptive guidance on what this key information required for the Golden Thread entails, but there is some functional guidance and consensus that it should contain the details about what materials are used in the construction of the building façade, the combustibility performance of these materials and also the performance of the materials and systems which have fire performing functions (such as fire doors and sprinklers).  Operationally the Golden Thread will take the form of an electronic register of materials, with accompanying drawings and technical details which cross reference.  The Golden Thread needs to be created before construction work starts and it is the responsibility of whoever commissions the building to create it, and so will likely be created initially and maintained by the Architect or Developers.  At the end of construction it must be handed over and managed by the Accountable Person (or the Responsible Person on their behalf) during operation of the building.  It then falls to the Accountable Person to make sure that it is kept up to date, and available when needed.  The Golden Thread will also form part of the Building Safety Case. 

For existing buildings, the Golden Thread will be the responsibility of the Accountable Person to compile.  This could present a significant challenge for some building owners who have older buildings where the information is poor.  However, as a result of the recent EWS1 process or PAS 9980, the majority of this information should be available. Under the requirements of Regulation 38 and Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, strictly speaking this information should have been in their possession anyway, its just that many building owners simply don’t have it.  It is hoped that the renewed regime of the Golden Thread will mean that this information is compiled into a structured format that will stand the test of time.    

The Building Safety Bill has now become the Building Safety Act from today. This Building Safety Act, compliments the Fire Safety Act, paving the way for update fire safety regulations.

This is the culmination of months of debate in parliament. Balconies on high-rise buildings were a topical subject of the debate in the house of Lords during the passing of the bill. Aluminium decking on high-rise balconies near the coast was raised by the representatives of a project in Dorset, where Blazeboard is installed. Blazeboard has weathered the salty air but the building has problems with EWS1. Developers have proposed aluminium decking to be installed to the balconies of this building. Baroness Fox-Buckley stated that, “We are all familiar with the #claddingscandal, but I want to avoid a scandal, or at least an injustice, emerging that is not to do with cladding”. The Baroness expressed concerns about corrosion of metals in salty environments, and suggested that replacement of the existing decking with the proposed aluminium decking may cause a future corrosion problem.

How does the Building Safety Act (and Fire Safety Act) affect leaseholders with combustible balconies? The Acts allow leaseholders to retrospectively sue their developer for unsafe materials such as cladding and decking, going back up to 30 years.

Registration of high-rise buildings will start in April 2023, requiring a Responsible Person to provide a Building Safety Case for their building.

New fire safety regulations will now stem from the Building Safety Act. The release of updated regulations is expected to be over the next 18 months.