Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Places duties on the Responsible Person in relevant premises, including duties around appropriate fire precautions and maintenance of fire-safety measures.
View legislation ↗KNOWLEDGE & COMPLIANCE
Understand the
reason behind the work.
Passive fire protection is shaped by law, statutory guidance, design requirements, standards, test evidence and the ongoing duty to keep fire precautions effective.
Law ≠ guidance ≠ standardsThis section deliberately separates legal duties from statutory guidance and technical standards.
FIRE DOORS
What purpose does a fire door serve?
A fire-resisting doorset protects an opening in fire-resisting construction. When correctly specified, installed, closed and maintained, it can resist the passage of fire — and, where smoke control is required, help restrict smoke — for its intended performance period. It is therefore part of the building's compartmentation strategy rather than an isolated product.
Restricts fire and smoke spread
Supports protected escape routes
Maintains compartment boundaries
Protects openings in fire-resisting walls
Depends on compatible components
Requires inspection and maintenance
LAW
Legal duties
Fire Safety Act 2021
Clarified the application of the Fire Safety Order to parts of multi-occupied residential buildings, including flat entrance doors between domestic premises and common parts.
View legislation ↗Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
Introduced specific duties for certain multi-occupied residential buildings, including fire-door checking requirements in buildings within scope.
View government guidance ↗Building Safety Act 2022
Part of the wider post-Grenfell building-safety regime, with additional duties and information requirements applying in defined circumstances and to higher-risk buildings.
View legislation ↗STATUTORY GUIDANCE
Building Regulations & Approved Document B
England
Approved Document B — Fire Safety
Provides statutory guidance supporting the fire-safety requirements of the Building Regulations, including compartmentation, fire-resisting construction and protection of openings.
View current Approved Document B ↗STANDARDS & BEST PRACTICE
Technical standards
BS 8214:2026
Code of practice covering practical considerations concerning the specification, design and performance in use of fire-resisting and smoke-control doors.
BSI overview ↗BS EN 1634-1:2014+A1:2018
Fire-resistance test method for door and shutter assemblies and openable windows.
BSI Knowledge ↗HTM 05 series
Healthcare fire-safety guidance relevant to NHS environments, including operational fire safety and fire precautions in healthcare premises.
NHS technical guidance ↗Test evidence & Field of Application
Product/system selection should be based on applicable evidence for the actual construction, size, orientation, supporting construction and components being used.
Talk to Liberty →INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Golden Thread
For relevant higher-risk buildings, the building-safety regime includes requirements around prescribed digital information. More generally, traceable asset IDs, drawings, photographs, inspection records, installation records and revision history make passive fire protection easier to manage and verify over time.
Government guidance ↗