The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) have today announced a consultation on how to build on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety.
The consultation proposes fundamental reform of building safety requirements which puts residents’ safety at its heart. This proposal spans the following five broad areas:
The consultation paper has a section on fire doors which begins on page 21, and states that ‘The investigation into the fire door industry has continued into the timber fire door market and we will be providing further updates on this work over the coming months.’ We know from our members that those who have had their fire doors put through the government commissioned fire- resistant tests have reported exceptional protection. Results reported to the BWF Fire Door Alliance to date demonstrate that on average, across the data submitted, fire-resisting time for member doors currently stands at 46 minutes, surpassing the 30-minute requirement on average by 16 minutes. Click here to read more on the on-going testing.
The BWF Fire Door Alliance advocates third-party certification of all fire doors/doorsets. In the paper released today there is reference to third-party certification and some associated costs – see page 132 onwards. MHCLG are not proposing mandatory third-party certification but propose to encourage manufacturers to ‘use these voluntary assurance schemes in order that the safety of products used is more rigorously scrutinised.’
The BWF Fire Door Alliance will consult with members and industry partners on the paper released today and will be feedback on the consultation.
For more details on the consultation paper, visit the MHCLG website.