Instruments of interest
Draft Local Government (Exclusion of Non-commercial Considerations) (England) Order 2022
43.The purpose of this draft Order is to allow best value authorities15 and parish councils in England to terminate proposed or existing public supply or works contracts, where the country of origin of supplies to the contractor or the location of the business activities or interests of a contractor is the Russian Federation or Republic of Belarus. The draft Order does not place any obligation on authorities to terminate commercial relationships but allows them to cancel existing contracts or decline bids from prospective suppliers. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says that this will align arrangements for local authorities with those for central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies which were set out in a procurement notice in March 2022.16
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/547)
44.The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that the scope of the Responsible Person’s (RP)17 duties includes the structure, external walls, and individual flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings. These Regulations implement recommendations made by Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry by imposing new duties on the RPs of high-rise and other multi-occupied residential buildings in England to improve the safety of residents. The Government are still consulting on the arrangements for Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans.18
45.These Regulations align with the Building Safety Act 2022 to define a “high-rise residential building” as one that is at least 18 metres in height or has seven or more storeys. The RP will be required to install and maintain a secure information box in such buildings to provide useful information to the Fire and Rescue Service in an emergency which will include hard copies of the building’s floor plans and electronic information about its construction and the materials used in the building. The RP will also be required to conduct regular checks on fire doors, conduct monthly checks on evacuation lifts and provide residents with fire safety instructions.
46.We note that this legislation does not come into effect until 23 January 2023 and asked the Home Office for an explanation (which is published in full in Appendix 3). The Home Office responded that the changes require guidance to be published and preparations to be made not only by the RPs but also by the authorities, in particular the London Fire Brigade, as 61% of high-rise residential buildings are in London. We regard it as important that the RPs should have clear guidance about these duties and how to carry them out to meet the Regulations’ requirements.
15 Best value authorities are authorities designated under the Local Government Act 1999 to secure continuous improvement in the way in which they exercise their functions, having regard to a combination of factors, including economy, efficiency and effectiveness. They include county councils, district councils and London borough councils.
16 Cabinet Office, ‘Procurement Policy Note 01/22: contracts with suppliers from Russia and Belarus’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0122-contracts-with-suppliers-from-russia-and-belarus [accessed 8 June 2022].
17 A “Responsible Person” is defined in Article 3(b)(i) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. In a workplace it is the employer, in other circumstances it may be the owner or occupier of the building.
18 Home Office, ‘Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans’: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/personal-emergency-evacuation-plans [accessed 8 June 2022].