Fire safety information is what the person responsible for a building's fire safety needs to run and maintain it safely: how the building was designed and built to keep people safe in a fire, and the fire safety systems and equipment provided. Regulation 38 of the Building Regulations 2010 requires the person carrying out certain building work to hand it over.
This page covers England in detail and notes where Wales differs. It is separate from the health and safety file, which is about future construction work.
When regulation 38 applies
Regulation 38 applies where building work:
- erects or extends a building that is, or will be after the work, covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005; or
- is done in connection with a material change of use after which the Fire Safety Order applies, or continues to apply;
and Part B of the Building Regulations (fire safety) imposes a requirement on that work.
So it does not apply to every job in a building covered by the Fire Safety Order. An ordinary refurbishment or fit-out does not trigger it on its own, although the building's responsible person will still need information about any change to its fire safety arrangements, and other duties may apply.
The Fire Safety Order covers non-domestic premises and the common parts of buildings containing flats; it does not cover the inside of a single private dwelling.
Who gives it, and to whom
The person carrying out the work gives it to the responsible person, as the Fire Safety Order defines them: usually the employer, or whoever controls the premises. On a contracted job, the principal contractor usually assembles it from the designers and subcontractors.
What to hand over
The regulation asks for information about the design and construction of the building or extension, and the services, fittings and equipment provided, that will help the responsible person operate and maintain it with reasonable safety.
Approved Document B, as amended from 2 March 2025 in England, gives guidance on what that means. It is not an exhaustive list, and the level of detail should be decided case by case. For an ordinary building, an as-built plan showing where things are may be enough for many items.
Essential information, for every building where regulation 38 applies:
- How the fire safety arrangements work together, including the fire safety strategy if one was prepared.
- An as-built plan showing:
- escape routes and the exit capacity of each storey and of the building;
- fire-resisting construction, fire-separating elements and cavity barriers in walk-in spaces;
- fire doorsets, self-closing devices and other doors relevant to fire safety;
- detectors, call points, alarm equipment, sounders, signage, emergency lighting, extinguishers, fire mains and external hydrants;
- sprinklers, with their isolating valves and controls;
- smoke control or smoke ventilation, with its mode of operation and controls;
- high-risk areas, such as heating plant;
- power supplies, including any on-site generation;
- where secure information boxes are.
- Specifications of the fire safety equipment, and its routine maintenance schedules.
- The assumptions about how the building will be managed that the fire safety design relies on.
- Provisions for evacuating disabled people, to help with personal emergency evacuation plans.
Additional information for complex buildings, such as those with fire-engineered solutions, mixed uses or phased occupation: a detailed record of the fire safety strategy and of how the fire protection measures are operated and maintained, including an outline cause and effect matrix, the assumptions behind the strategy, escape details such as occupant loads and evacuation lifts, the passive and active fire protection in detail, equipment specifications and software, and acceptance and commissioning test records. For care homes, the guidance also asks for the assessed number of beds per compartment.
Approved Document B's transitional arrangements keep the earlier guidance only where a building notice, initial notice or full plans application was given or made before 2 March 2025 and the work had started and was sufficiently progressed before that date, or starts and is sufficiently progressed within the six months from it (by 1 September 2025). For a new building, sufficiently progressed means the foundation concrete has been poured or piling has started; for work to an existing building, that the work has started. Notification alone is not enough.
When
| Situation | Deadline for handing it over |
|---|---|
| The building or extension is not occupied during the work | By completion, or by occupation if that is earlier |
| The building or extension is occupied during the work | By completion |
| Work under an initial notice with a registered building control approver (England) | By the earliest of completion of the work the initial notice covers, occupation of the building or extension, and the date the initial notice ceases to be in force |
Under an initial notice, regulation 38 is modified by the Building (Registered Building Control Approvers etc.) (England) Regulations 2024: the deadline above replaces the occupied and unoccupied rule, and the notice described below goes to the approver rather than the local authority. An initial notice can cease to be in force, for example some weeks after occupation or substantial completion without a final certificate, so do not leave the handover until the final certificate.
The responsible person's acknowledgement
The responsible person must give the person carrying out the work a notice that acknowledges receiving the fire safety information and confirms it is enough for them to understand, operate and maintain the building and its fire safety systems. This has applied in England since 1 October 2023 and in Wales since 1 July 2026, for work under the current rules; Welsh work that qualifies under the transitional arrangements stays under the previous version.
Ask for it when you hand the information over, and record the request: if it does not arrive, the notice to building control has to say what you did to get it and when.
Telling building control
The person carrying out the work then tells building control that the information was given, and either confirms the acknowledgement was received or says what steps were taken to get it, and when.
| Route | Who is told | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Local authority building control (England) | The local authority | 5 days after the handover deadline |
| Registered building control approver, under an initial notice (England) | The approver | 5 days after the handover deadline, which under an initial notice is the earliest of completion, occupation and the initial notice ceasing to be in force |
| Higher-risk building work (England) | The Building Safety Regulator, as the building control authority | 5 days after the handover deadline |
| Work under a competent person (self-certification) scheme | The building control authority | 30 days after the handover deadline |
| Work with a registered third-party certifier (England) | The certifier, within 7 days of the handover deadline; the certifier then tells the authority within 30 days of receiving it | As shown |
In each case the person carrying out the work gives the notice.
Wales
Wales substituted its own version of regulation 38's handover and notification paragraphs from 1 July 2026. The responsible person's acknowledgement, which confirms the information is sufficient, the content of the notice and the 5-day and 30-day deadlines are the same as in England; the notice goes to the building control authority. The Welsh text does not include England's third-party certifier route. Wales publishes its own Approved Document B, so check the Welsh guidance for what to include.
Projects that qualify under the Welsh transitional arrangements stay under the previous regime, including the earlier version of regulation 38. Broadly, that is work where, before 1 July 2026, it had started, plans had been deposited or a building notice or initial notice had been given; for higher-risk work, full plans deposited or an initial notice accepted before that date. Check the Welsh Government's guidance for a particular project.
Higher-risk buildings
For higher-risk building work, the golden thread handover applies as well, under each country's own higher-risk building regime, and it is due no later than completion of the work, not when the completion certificate is issued. In England, Approved Document B names the accountable person, as well as the responsible person, as a recipient of fire safety information. See handover documents.
How it relates to the health and safety file
They are separate documents for different people. Fire safety information is for running the building safely in case of fire; the health and safety file is for doing future construction work safely. The file can point to the fire safety information for fire-fighting services, compartmentation and fire doors, rather than copying it. Both should be consistent with the same as-built drawings.
Sources
- Building Regulations 2010, regulation 38 (England and Wales versions)
- GOV.UK: Approved Document B, 2025 amendments (England)
- Building (Registered Building Control Approvers etc.) (England) Regulations 2024, regulation 5 (modifications for initial notices)
- GOV.WALES: Transitional arrangements for the building control regime starting 1 July 2026
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005