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Standards Development
This proposal is for a Code of Practice to specify recommendations and guidance for fire safety provisions for the refurbishment, retrofitting, structural alteration, and change of use of existing buildings.
The proposed standard would cover the design of permanent fire safety measures in existing structures that are being refurbished or altered or where existing buildings are being retrofitted for a change of use. This will include the management of transitional (temporary) fire risks during phased construction, and the validation of passive and active fire systems prior to handover. It applies to all purpose groups, including high-risk residential buildings (HRRBs).
This standard would not cover routine like-for-like maintenance, management of buildings (covered by BS 9999/BS 9991), or the structural fire design of entirely new buildings.
Why is a new/revised/amended Standard necessary? The UK regulatory landscape has shifted dramatically following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Regulations mandate strict gateway reviews and an unbroken "Golden Thread" of digital information for building works. However, the technical standards supporting them have a critical blind spot:
• Existing standards like BS 9999 (commercial) and BS 9991 (residential) are inherently optimised for new-build designs where geometry, materials, and compartmentation boundaries are fully controllable. They offer little practical methodology for handling legacy constraints like hidden structural defects, historic framing, or unmapped cavity barriers.
• The urgent drive to meet UK decarbonisation targets has triggered a wave refurbishing old building stock for further use. Guidance is required on how to assess buildings to proportionately improve the safety of a building and establish where improvements will be required in order to meet minimum regulatory standards in terms of both construction and occupation.
• Guidance is required in how to confirm the safe use of energy-efficiency retrofits. Installing thick external wall insulation (EWI), mounting heavy solar arrays on old roofs, and running new heat-pump pipework through existing floors all pose threats to original fire compartmentation.
• Major refurbishments often happen while buildings remain partially occupied. There is currently a guidance gap on how to safely manage a building's fire strategy when its primary escape routes or alarm systems are temporarily decommissioned for construction upgrades
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