The Grenfell Tower Inquiry and Its Impact on Fire Door Regulation

The fire at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 claimed 72 lives and led to the most significant review of UK building and fire safety regulation in a generation. Passive fire protection — and fire doors specifically — featured prominently in the Inquiry's findings, and the regulatory changes that followed directly affect how fire doors are specified, installed and maintained in residential buildings today. This is a sensitive subject, and it is discussed here strictly in terms of its regulatory and technical consequences for specification practice.

What the Inquiry Found on Fire Doors

Police-commissioned testing following the fire found that flat entrance fire doors at Grenfell Tower, including replacement doors fitted in 2011, did not consistently meet their required performance. Reporting at the time noted that a tested sample door held back fire for around 15 minutes rather than the 30 minutes it was designed and required to achieve, and that the doors had not undergone smoke leakage testing to the standard expected. The Inquiry's independent expert panel concluded there was a performance issue with the doors used, which did not consistently meet the fire resistance standard required under building regulations. Alongside the doors themselves, evidence to the Inquiry also described flat entrance doors that failed to self-close reliably, allowing smoke to spread into the building's common corridor during the fire.

From Phase 1 to the Phase 2 Report

The Inquiry published its Phase 1 report in October 2019, examining the events of the night itself, and its final Phase 2 report on 4 September 2024, examining the wider causes, including the performance of construction products, the regulatory system, and the management of the building. The Phase 2 report made 58 recommendations to government, industry and other bodies, addressing construction product testing and marketing, building control, fire and rescue service preparedness, and the management of fire safety in existing residential buildings — with fire door performance and inspection featuring among the areas requiring urgent attention.

The Regulatory Response: Fire Safety Act and Regulations

Ahead of the Phase 2 report, government had already moved to close specific gaps the Inquiry's evidence had exposed. The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 extends to a building's structure, external walls and flat entrance doors, removing ambiguity that had existed about whether these elements fell within scope. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which followed, introduced specific duties — including annual flat entrance door checks and quarterly common parts fire door checks in buildings with storeys over 11 metres — translating the Inquiry's evidence on inspection failures into a recurring, documented legal obligation. Separately, the Building Safety Act 2022 established a new Building Safety Regulator and higher-risk building regime, responding to wider findings about oversight and accountability.

Construction Products Reform

The Phase 2 report was also critical of testing, certification and marketing practices in the construction products industry, prompting a government-led programme of construction products reform running alongside the building safety changes. For fire doors and other passive fire protection products, the direction of this reform reinforces the importance of test evidence that precisely matches the product configuration supplied, transparent and accurate marketing of fire performance, and traceability from a specific test report through to the product installed on site — the same principles reflected in the EN 1634-1 and EN 13501-2 framework BÖLDT's products are tested and classified against.

What This Means for Specifiers Today

• —Treat flat entrance and common parts fire door checks as a recurring statutory obligation in buildings over 11 metres, not a one-off installation certificate.
• —Request test evidence that precisely matches the product construction being supplied — leaf, frame, hardware and seals as tested, not a generic rating claim.
• —Confirm self-closing devices are specified, correctly installed and included in ongoing maintenance regimes, given the Inquiry's evidence on self-closing failures.
• —Expect continued regulatory attention on construction product testing and marketing claims as the government works through the Inquiry's 58 recommendations.
• —Where in doubt about a product's evidence base, request the underlying EN 1634-1 test report and EN 13501-2 classification directly from the manufacturer, rather than relying on a summary claim.

BÖLDT fire doors are tested to EN 1634-1 and classified to EN 13501-2, with test evidence independently verified by Efectis and TÜV SÜD, and our technical team can supply full documentation matching the exact product configuration specified on any project.