Part 5: Other provisions about safety standards, etc. Fire safety Section 156: Amendment of Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 Background
This is a new provision. This requirement applies to all Responsible Persons for premises in a higher-risk building. For buildings subject to the Building Safety Act, the Responsible Person(s) must take reasonable steps to identify any Accountable Person(s) in the building and cooperate with them for the purpose of carrying out their respective duties to collectively manage building and fire safety for the entire building. The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that the duties of Responsible Persons and Accountable Persons will contribute towards a whole-building approach to building and fire safety.
Example
Where the Responsible Person is also the Accountable Person, they must ensure that they comply with the requirements of the FSO for the common parts while this should also contribute towards their management of safety for the whole building. For example, the fire risk assessment for the common parts of the building could contribute to the safety case report, and the provision of fire safety information to residents could complement or support the residents engagement strategy required under the building safety regime.
The same will be expected where the Responsible Person and Accountable Person are not the same person and where there are multiple Responsible Persons and/or Accountable Persons, the Responsible Person must identify themselves to the other(s) in order to be able to discharge their cooperation duty and for the purpose of enabling the Accountable Person to carry out their duties.
In practice, the Responsible Person should make the Accountable Person aware of fire safety risks identified and precautions taken in the common parts of the building.