Fire strategies
A document for the building, mainly at the design stage
A fire strategy is usually prepared for a new building. It explains how the proposed design, and the building as it is intended to be built, will meet the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations.
A fire risk assessment looks at a premises in day-to-day use. A strategy is not a fire risk assessment, and it does not replace that assessment.
01 New buildings
New buildings and Building Control
The strategy can be submitted in the Building Control process, so the building control body can see how the fire precautions are intended to work together.
In Wales, Approved Document B is practical guidance issued by the Welsh Government on the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations. The regulations are the legal requirements. The Approved Document is guidance on ways of meeting them. Following that guidance can support a presumption of compliance, but the presumption is not conclusive, and other approaches may be used. A strategy is not a statement that the finished construction complies, and it does not guarantee approval.
02 Contents
What it covers
For the building in question, the strategy sets out the measures that are relevant. Those can include warning and detection, escape routes with lighting and signs, fire separation and limiting the spread of fire, and access for the fire and rescue service. Only the measures that matter for that building are included.
03 After completion
Management, and existing premises
When the work is finished, the people who will run the building need enough information to operate and maintain the fire precautions. Where Regulation 38 applies, the person carrying out the work must pass that information on. A fire strategy is one way to set it out, including how the building is to be managed.
The same kind of document can be used for an extension, a refurbishment or renovation, or a change of use, and sometimes for an existing building where that information is missing. It is not needed for every site.
Discuss your premises and the scope of a suitable fire strategy
For a more complex building, the scope is agreed case by case.
Initial discussions are informal and without obligation.