Approved Document B: 2025 amendments now in force, but a review on the horizon
As of 2 March 2025, the latest amendments to Approved Document B, the statutory guidance on fire safety supplementing the Building Regulations 2010, are in force. These amendments focus on three areas: fire safety information; changes to the fire testing standards used in the guidance, and sprinklers in care homes.
The amendments were initially published in September 2024. On 2 March 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued a circular making a few minor adjustments to the text.
The amendments come in the context of a broader review of building regulation guidance on the horizon. In an announcement made in December 2024, Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, stated that the Building Safety Regulator would conduct a fundamental review of all building regulations guidance, including Approved Document B. Both Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety final report published in May 2018 and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report published in September 2024 recommended changes to the building regulations guidance.
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