Regulation 6 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require responsible persons of high-rise residential buildings in England to share up-to-date plans of the building with the fire and rescue service. The plans will be used by operational fire-fighters during an incident and need to be clear, simple and easy to use.   

Electronic sharing of plans

The responsible person should send electronic copies of the plans to BusinessSupportTeam@RBFRS.co.uk. When sending plans, please ensure the name and address of the building to which the plan relates is clearly identified. 

Plan submissions should be a PDF or JPEG file and no more than 500MB in size. Where the entire file size exceeds 500MB, building/floor plans should be submitted individually.

Storage of hard copies

The responsible person is also required to provide a copy of the plans inside the premises’ secure information box. The plans should be sized to fit on A3 paper and, where necessary, printed in colour to assist in easy identification of the plan symbols. 

To ensure a copy of the plans can remain with the incident commander at all times as well as be used by firefighters inside the building, at least two copies of each plan should be provided inside the secure information box. Recognizing how the plans will be used and the conditions they may be exposed to, plans should be laminated to ensure they remain usable throughout the course of an incident. 

Floor Plans

Floor plans must show the location of specific equipment as defined by the Regulations. The plans must clearly identify and distinguish between the following: 

• Passenger lifts 
• Lift for use by firefighters 
• Evacuation lifts 
• Inlets / outlets for dry-rising mains 
• Inlets / outlets for wet-rising mains 
• Smoke control systems 
• Suppression systems

A plan will need to be prepared for each floor; where floors are identical it is permissible to prepare a single plan providing the floors to which the plans refer to are clearly indicated.However, it is the preference of RBFRS that each floor has a separate plan, regardless of layout, so that the individual flat numbers can be easily identified on each floor.

Building Plan

A separate single page plan must be provided which shows the building and its immediate surroundings. The building plan will enable firefighters to orientate themselves upon arrival and must provide information on access and key firefighting both inside and outside the building.

The full list of information to be provided on the building plan is defined in the Regulations and includes all of the following:

• The environs of the building;
• Details of the use of the building, for example for commercial or residential purposes;
• Access for fire and rescue appliances;
• The dimensions of the building;
• Information on the number of storeys of the building and the number of basement levels (if any);
• Information regarding the presence of maisonettes or scissor section flats;
• Inlets for dry-rising mains;
• Inlets for wet-rising mains;
• The location of shut-off controls for any sprinklers;
• Access points for the building;
• The location of the secure information box;
• The location of the controls for any smoke control system;
• The location of any firefighting shaft;
• The location of main stairways in the building;
• The location of the controls for any evacuation alert system.

Additional Guidance

For further guidance on the preparation and storage of plans, including examples of floor and building plans, refer to The Code of Practice for the Provision of Premises Information Boxes in Residential Buildings.