613.This Schedule sets out transitional arrangements in respect of fire risk assessments conducted under the FSO. Paragraph 1 applies to regulated buildings and paragraph 2 applies to relevant HMOs; both make similar provisions as follows.
614.Article 9 of the FSO requires the responsible person for premises to conduct a (fire) risk assessment, and to keep it up to date. That is broadly similar to the requirements in section 29 of the Act to ensure that a fire risk assessment is made.
615.Before the Act comes into force, most if not all buildings covered by it would be covered by the FSO, so should have risk assessments in place. While those risk assessments are not identical to those required by the Act, they should still adequately identify significant fire risks. To enable a transition from one regime to another, paragraphs 1(1) and (2) provide that a risk assessment under the FSO serves as a fire risk assessment under the Act where:
	the principal accountable person for an occupied regulated building was, immediately before section 29 came into force, also the responsible person under the FSO for premises that include all of the “relevant parts” of the occupied regulated building, and
	the risk assessment under the FSO was made or reviewed during the six months ending with the day on which section 29 came into force.
616.The “relevant parts” of an occupied regulated building are the parts for which an accountable person is responsible. Section 29 requires a principal accountable person for an occupied regulated building to ensure that fire safety risks relating to those parts are assessed.
617.Where a FSO risk assessment serves as a fire risk assessment under the Act, paragraph 1(3) disapplies the requirement in section 31(1) (when the first fire risk assessment for a regulated building must be made). Instead, the principal accountable person must ensure a new fire risk assessment under section 29 is made no later than 12 months after the day on which the existing assessment (under the FSO) was made or reviewed. However, subsections (2) to (4) of section 31 of the Act apply to the FSO assessment e.g. if any of the criteria in section 31(2) are met then a further risk assessment (under section 29) must be made.
618.For example, and assuming for these purposes that sections 29 and 31 come into force on 1 April 2027 (and the criteria in paragraph 1(1) are met):
	a principal accountable person for an occupied regulated building who had last conducted a risk assessment under the FSO on 1 February 2027 (i.e. 2 months before section 29 comes into force) would have until 1 February 2028 to ensure a fire risk assessment under section 29 was made (subject to subsections (2) to (4) of section 31), but
	a principal accountable person for an occupied regulated building who had last conducted a risk assessment under the FSO on 1 August 2026 (i.e. 8 months before section 29 comes into force) would be required to ensure a fire risk assessment be made no later than 6 months after section 31 comes into force, i.e. by 1 October 2027.
619.Paragraph 1(5) confers a regulation making power on the Welsh Ministers to amend paragraph 1 of Schedule 4 to vary the deadline for making a fire risk assessments for a regulated building. This could, for example, be used to provide for different deadlines for different types of regulated building.
620.Paragraph 2 makes equivalent provision in respect of relevant HMOs.
621.Paragraph 3 of the Schedule provides that the disapplication of certain provisions of the FSO (new Article 7A of the FSO) does not apply in relation to an alteration notice, enforcement notice or prohibition notices served before paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 came into force (so those notices still have effect). For example, and assuming that paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 to the Act comes into force on 1 April 2027, if an enforcing authority had issued a prohibition notice under the FSO on a block of flats on 1 March 2027, that prohibition notice would continue in force after 1 April 2027, even though the powers in the FSO to issue a prohibition notice would no longer apply to those premises.
Schedule 4 - Fire Safety Order: Transitional and saving provisions