Eight years on from Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future report, and four years after the introduction of the Building Safety Act (BSA), a recent FDM survey found 85% of people on the Constructionline register believe the Building Safety Act doesn’t apply to them. They are wrong.
This is a worrying statistic as the regulatory landscape begins to harden. Section 35 of the BSA makes competence a requirement under building regulations, demanding proof that those who do the work are competent to do it.
This uncertainty also extends to the widely held belief that the act only applies to high-risk buildings, which isn’t the case. While higher-risk buildings are subject to more stringent rules under the gateway process, the core principles of competency and compliance apply to all buildings. If it needs building regulations approval, the legislation applies.
Since October 2023, the cost of breaching building regulations has also significantly increased. No longer a fineonly offence limited to £5,000, which Dame Judith Hackitt described as ‘so small as to be an ineffective deterrent’, the breaching of building regulations can now lead to a potentially unlimited fine and imprisonment for up to two years.
THE ILLUSION OF COMPLIANCE
Last year the Fire Door Inspection Scheme found that, along with gaps, faulty doors and maintenance issues, a worrying 31% of fire doors failed inspections due to incorrect installation. That’s almost one-third of fire doors designed to compartmentalise a building and provide a first line of defence in a fire event, wrongly installed from day one. This competence issue is exactly what Section 35 is trying to address. Not all competency issues are the result of incorrect installation; often, supply chain economics is to blame for fire door failures, resulting in substitutions for cheaper hardware, fewer safeguards, and a fire door that fails in 15 minutes rather than 30. This can create situations where non-fire-door hardware has been fitted to a fire door, which should never happen. The hardware used on a fire door must always be fire-rated and suitable. Hinges, latches, and closers must all meet current fire-rating standards.
Under the BSA, an ineffective fire door can now be used as evidence of incompetence, leading to prosecution. Insurance companies are also increasingly paying attention to fire door compliance, with non-compliance potentially invalidating property insurance.
A GOLDEN BUT FRAIL THREAD
As revealed in Barbara Lane’s supplemental report on the Grenfell disaster, none of the 106 fire doors replaced in the building in 2011 complied with Building Regulations. The smoke seals were found to be inconsistent, and door closers had been removed from the doors, which would have allowed smoke and fire to spread much faster. Had the golden thread of information been available, these issues are likely to have been flagged and fixed.
That’s why the BSA demands that the golden thread is accurate, up to date and captures all of a building’s data. This continuous, digital record of safety applies to every fire doorset, which should have a documented lifecycle from initial specification and manufacture to installation, inspection and modification. Unfortunately, the golden thread can be frail, often held together with a patchwork of data silos and different people storing records on different systems.
An effective golden thread demands digital evidence at every stage and should be continuously updated to ensure no gaps in data. To improve fire safety standards, the industry must stay focused on achieving standardised, accessible data to weave a strong, effective golden thread.
SHAPING A SAFER SECTOR TOGETHER
The implementation of the BSA is an industry-wide commitment. We all have a part to play in raising fire door safety standards and improving competency. For those installing timber fire doors, the 2025 CIBT Specialist Timber Fire Door Installer Competence Framework aligns with BS 8670-1, defining competencies. Building managers, accountable persons and responsible persons should maintain an auditable digital trail and consult the Building Safety Alliance’s Golden Thread Toolkit for guidance. And for fire door hardware suppliers, the upcoming BS 8670-2 will provide the competency framework needed to promote product governance and knowledge, reduce ambiguity and support a more transparent supply chain.
Every day, on every job, every person involved in the lifecycle of a fire door has a choice: to support the infrastructure for an improved, safer fire door industry or not. The frameworks are forming, the standards have been revised, and the regulator is going to court. The BSA is everyone’s responsibility, and those who act now will help to shape a more competent and safer sector for generations to come. www.allegion.com