Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Table 9.1
Functional requirements of the Building Regulations 2000
Both of these Building Regulations lay down certain 
‘functional requirements’ that all buildings must satisfy. 
In the regulations, these functional requirements are 
nothing more than brief descriptions of the function of 
various aspects of the building, for example the Building 
Regulations require that all buildings have ‘adequate 
drainage’. The specifi c design and construction methods 
used to achieve the functional requirements of the 
Building Regulations are, in the UK, left to those who 
design and construct buildings. So in the example given, 

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Fire protection in buildings
175
the design and construction of the drainage for a building 
may be of any type, 
but
it must be adequate.
In the same way, the regulations relating to the fi re 
safety of buildings are not in the main prescriptive but 
outline certain functional requirements, for example 
the Building Regulations require that all buildings have 
‘appropriate means of escape in case of fi re’.
The Building Regulations are enforced by local 
building control authorities, which work under the 
auspices of the government department responsible for 
planning. It is the local building control authorities who 
normally decide whether or not a particular approach 
to satisfying the functional requirements of the Building 
Regulations is adequate.
In order to provide some helpful guidance to design-
ers and constructors, the DCLG issues detailed guidance 
on how the functional requirements of the Building 
Regulations may be met. This detailed guidance takes 
the form of ‘Approved Documents’; these documents 
have the same status as all approved Codes of Practice.
In the case of fi re safety DCLG have issued ‘Fire 
Safety – Approved Document B’ to the Building Regula-
tions 2000 (Revised 2006).
The Building Regulations are divided into various 
‘parts’. Part ‘B’ of the regulations deals with the main 
fi re safety requirements for all buildings.
There are two volumes:
➤
Approved Document B (Fire Safety) – Volume 1: 
Dwellinghouses (2006 Edition)
➤
Approved Document B (Fire Safety) – Volume 2: 
Buildings other than dwellinghouses (2006 Edition).