Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: What Changed for Fire Doors

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023, introducing specific new duties for those responsible for fire safety in multi-occupied residential buildings in England. Among its provisions are requirements directly affecting fire door specification, maintenance and record-keeping — making it one of the more consequential pieces of secondary legislation for anyone involved in residential fire door supply, installation or facilities management.

The Regulatory Context

The Regulations were introduced under the Fire Safety Act 2021, which itself clarified that the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 extends to a building's structure, external walls and flat entrance doors — a clarification made necessary in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire and the subsequent public inquiry, which examined in detail how flat entrance door performance and maintenance contributed to the tragedy. The Regulations translate that clarified scope into specific, actionable duties for Responsible Persons managing multi-occupied residential buildings.

Flat Entrance Door Checks

For buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height, the Regulations require the Responsible Person to undertake — so far as reasonably practicable — checks on all flat entrance doors (or, where individual flat access is not possible, a sample of flat entrance doors) at least annually, checking that the door is fitted with an effective self-closing device and, so far as is checked from the exterior of the flat, that the door appears to be in good working order and free from damage. This effectively places a recurring, documented inspection duty on flat entrance fire doors that did not previously exist in this specific form.

Common Parts and Wayfinding

Alongside flat entrance door checks, the Regulations introduce requirements around providing residents with fire safety instructions, floor identification signage in stairwells, and, for the same height threshold, quarterly checks on all fire doors in the common parts of the building — a distinct requirement from the annual flat entrance door checks. Common parts fire doors, typically found at stair enclosures, lobbies and service risers, are subject to more frequent inspection, reflecting their role in protecting shared escape routes used by every resident.

What This Means for Fire Door Specification

The Regulations do not change the fire resistance ratings required for flat entrance or common parts doors — those continue to be set by Approved Document B and BS 9991 (fire safety in the design of residential buildings). What they change is the ongoing management obligation: a self-closing device that fails, a damaged seal, or a door that has been altered since installation now sits within a recurring statutory check regime with documentation expectations, rather than being addressed only reactively or at long intervals. For developers and landlords, this makes the durability and ease of ongoing maintenance of a fire door — not just its initial certified rating — a more direct commercial consideration.

Practical Steps for Responsible Persons

• —Establish a documented annual flat entrance door check regime for buildings with storeys over 11 metres, covering the self-closing device and visible external condition.
• —Establish a quarterly common parts fire door check regime for the same height threshold, covering all fire doors in shared areas.
• —Keep dated records of every check, including any remedial action identified and its completion — these records may be requested by the fire and rescue service or during a building safety case review.
• —Specify fire doors with robust, low-maintenance self-closing devices and durable seals to reduce the frequency and cost of remedial work identified during checks.
• —Where checks reveal non-rated hardware or seal replacements, treat this as a compliance issue requiring correction, not just a maintenance note.

BÖLDT's steel and glazed fire door systems are manufactured with durable self-closing hardware compatibility and seal detailing designed to support the recurring inspection regime introduced by the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and our after-sales team can support periodic inspection and remedial hardware replacement for installations supplied by us.