Health & Safety Measures in Your Block

Sinead Campbell from London Flats Insurance looks at the roles and responsibilities of providing adequate health and safety measures in your block.

Health and Safety is a top priority for any Property Manager or Residents’ Management Company (RMC) Director. Obviously, the safety of your residents will be a moral priority, but the legal responsibilities will also be front of mind.

Here we’ll be touching on the areas of health and safety that fall to the building’s ‘responsible person’, detailing the assessments required, the necessary signage and how to report an incident should someone have an accident on site.

Required Assessments and Reassessments

1. Fire Risk Assessments

Fire safety is at the forefront of your responsibilities. The regularity of assessments varies depending on the circumstances of your block.

Assessments should be reviewed if either of the following apply, regardless of the block’s age or number of stories:

There is reason to believe the current assessment for the block is no longer valid.
There have been any significant changes within the block such as major works.

For purpose-built blocks that are less than 20 years old and up to 3 storeys above ground level:

Re-assessments should be carried out every 2 years if no significant changes have occurred.
A full re-assessment should be carried out every 4 years if no significant changes have occurred.

For older buildings or with more than 3 storeys:

Re-assessments should be carried out every year even if no significant changes have occurred.
A full re-assessment should be carried out every 3 years even if no significant changes have occurred.

For buildings considered extremely high risk, a full re-assessment on an annual basis is advised.

2. Communal Area Risk Assessments

These annual risk assessments should include all common areas including grounds, meter cupboards, hallways and entranceways. They must comply with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 as contractors may work in any given area.

3. Working at Heights

Managing a block of flats will inevitably involve employing contractors to work at height (any height where a person could be injured if they fell according to the Work at Height Regulations 2005). This could include window cleaners, gutter clearance or any work that requires a ladder.

The responsible person must ensure that:

All work at height is properly planned and organised.
Those involved in work at height are deemed competent.
The risks from work at height have been assessed.
Appropriate work equipment is selected and used.
Equipment for work at height is properly maintained and inspected.
The risks from fragile surfaces are properly controlled.

4. Electrical Safety

Any equipment supplied to contactors or visitors by the responsible person must be in safe working order, be tested regularly and carry the CE mark. Communal area wiring should be tested by a qualified engineer at least once every five years.

5. Legionella Assessments

Legionella is a bacterium commonly found in water systems. Infection by the bacterium can result in Legionnaires’ disease, which can be fatal. The responsible person has a duty to control the risks of Legionella in any pipes, tanks and taps in common parts and an annual risk assessment should be carried out by an expert. If any risks are identified, then a written action plan should be produced and followed to reduce the risks.

Safety Signage

The Health and Safety Executive provides a handy guide to help those responsible for buildings to meet the requirements of The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996. The regulations require safety signs to be put in place in circumstances where there is a significant risk to health and safety that has not been removed or controlled by other methods, and where the introduction of a sign can reduce the risk.

All safety signs are standardised and colour coded:

Green Signs can either tell people the location of certain safety equipment (such as first aid equipment) or where fire exits are located.
Red Signs are used solely to show the location of fire extinguishers and other fire safety equipment.
Blue Circles provide instructions- a prime example in blocks of flats would be a fire action notice.
Red Circles with a diagonal line through the centre show that whatever is demonstrated by the image is prohibited e.g. no smoking signs.
Yellow Triangles are used to make people aware of something that is dangerous- asbestos for example.

Visual signs with recognisable icons are used so that messages can be quickly relayed and understood without worrying about language barriers. They are clear, concise and remove the need for large amounts of text which may be difficult to read or comprehend in an emergency.

Law Updates for 2023

On the 23rd of January 2023, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 were brought into effect under Article 24 of the Fire Safety Order. The Regulations have been introduced as part of implementing the recommendations laid out in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report.

Section one of the Fire Safety Act amends the Fire Safety Order to clarify that fire risk assessments for all multi-occupied residential buildings should be updated to include structure, external walls and flat entrance doors. These assessments should be updated as soon as is practicable.

Responsible Persons of multi-occupied residential buildings in England with two or more sets of domestic premises and which have common parts, will also need to provide residents with instructions including:

How to report a fire.
A reminder of what the evacuation strategy is for that building.
Any other instruction that tells residents what they must do once a fire has occurred, based on the building’s evacuation strategy.
Information on the vital importance of fire doors to a building’s fire safety.

This information should be clearly displayed in the building’s communal areas (such as the lobby or any conspicuous part of the building) as well as being shared directly with residents when they move into the building. This information will need to be updated and provided again (in both the communal area and to residents) when a document is updated and must also be re-provided to residents on an annual basis regardless of any changes.

The new regulations also make it a requirement for Responsible Persons of all multi-occupied residential buildings in England with storeys over 11 meters in height to:

undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors (including self-closing devices) in the common parts.
undertake, on a best endeavour basis, annual checks of all flat entrance doors (including self-closing devices) that lead onto a building’s common parts.

Reporting Incidents

Should the worst happen, it’s important to fulfil your duties to report any accidents that happen on site. Any dangerous incidents, diseases and serious accidents must be reported to the Health and Safety Executive via RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013). This includes incidents involving staff, self employed contractors, visitors and residents.

Health & Safety Enforcement

It is the job of local authorities and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to ensure health and safety standards are maintained within blocks of flats. If their representatives visit a block and are not satisfied with the measures in place, the HSE can issue improvement notices which must be adhered to (the responsible person may well be prosecuted if they’re not), mitigating the risks within the block.

For more information, please contact a member of the London Flats Insurance team on 020 7993 3034.