Approved Document B

1 Introduction
2 Amendments to statutory guidance on assessments in lieu of tests
3 Updates
4 New clarified Approved Document B
5 2022
6 2024 and 2025 amendments
7 2026 and 2029 amendments
8 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Introduction

The first set of national building standards was introduced in 1965. The 'building regulations' establish standards that have to be achieved in the construction of buildings. They set out:

What qualifies as 'building work' and so falls under the control of the regulations.
What types of buildings are exempt.
The notification procedures that must be followed when starting, carrying out, and completing building work.
Requirements for specific aspects of building design and construction.

The approved documents provide guidance for satisfying the requirements of the building regulations in common building situations.

Part B of the building regulations in England covers fire safety matters within and around buildings.

The approved documents to Part B are in two volumes. The current base edition was published in July 2019 (see below), replacing the 2013 edition, which itself replaced Approved Document B (2006, incorporating 2010 amendments). Since 2019 the guidance has been amended several times, most recently in March 2025, with further amendments due to take effect on 30 September 2026 and 2 September 2029 (see 2024 and 2025 amendments and 2026 and 2029 amendments, below).

[edit] Amendments to statutory guidance on assessments in lieu of tests

On 28 July 2017, following the Grenfell Tower fire, then-Communities Secretary Sajid Javid MP announced an independent review of the building regulations and fire safety. For more information, see Independent review of the building regulations and fire safety.

In April 2018, the Ministry of Housing published a consultation paper which proposed limiting or stopping the use of desktop studies for assessing the fire performance of external cladding systems, to strengthen fire testing for cladding systems on residential buildings.

The revisions contained in the consultation paper 'Amendments to statutory guidance on assessments in lieu of test in Approved Document B (Fire Safety)' were a result of the recommendations made by the interim Hackitt report published in 2017. Ref. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/approved-document-b-fire-safety-amendments-to-statutory-guidance-on-assessments-in-lieu-of-tests

[edit] Updates

In July 2018, the government announced it was to launch a full-scale review of Approved Document B in the autumn of 2018 to clarify and reduce the complexity of fire safety guidance in the Building Regulations following the recommendations made by Dame Judith Hackitt.

Communities secretary James Brokenshire said: "Dame Judith's report sets out the right framework to improve safety but I will not hesitate to go further than the recommendations where I deem it necessary. That is why I am going further than my original commitment to simply clarify the guidelines, by commencing an end-to-end technical review of the fire safety aspects of building regulations in the autumn."

Changes to the approved document came into force on 21 December 2018 and can be seen at: Changes to approved document B following the Hackitt review.

The government launched a call for evidence for the technical review of approved document B on 18 December. Ref https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/technical-review-of-approved-document-b-of-the-building-regulations-a-call-for-evidence

The consultation closed on 1 March 2019.

In April 2019 paragraph 12.8 was amended.

[edit] New clarified Approved Document B

On 5 July 2019, in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published a New clarified Approved Document B. The changes this introduced were intended to ensure that the document uses plain English, and it was also significantly restructured with the design of blocks of flats moved from Volume 2 to Volume 1:

Volume 1: Dwellings.
Volume 2: Buildings other than dwellings.

Circular 02/2019 describes the amendments in detail, although no new policy was introduced.

An MHCLG spokesperson said: "This refreshed text provides clear guidance for building owners to ensure they meet our regulations so there is no misunderstanding of their responsibility for residents' safety... We will shortly set out our next steps for the guidance following our call for evidence last year."

The new approved documents came into force on 30 August 2019.

In September 2019, both volumes were removed due to potential errors relating to the provision of dampers fitted to the vents of smoke shafts. In October the documents were corrected and reinstated.

On 27 November 2019, after a challenge to the consultation process that introduced the ban, the High Court ruled that the consultation had been inadequate in respect of the inclusion of products intended to reduce heat gain within a building (for example, blinds, shutters and awnings) within the ban. As a result the Court quashed one part of the 2018 regulations which had included within the ban "a device for reducing heat gain within a building by deflecting sunlight which is attached to an external wall". The practical effect of the Court judgment is that the regulations now exist as if that section of the regulations had never been included in the ban. Ref https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-amendment-regulations-2018-circular-032019

[edit] 2022

On 1 June 2022, changes were introduced, including an outright ban on the use of Metal Composite Material (MCM) / Metal composite panels (MCP) with unmodified polyethylene (PE) core on all new buildings at any height.

For more information see: 2022 changes to fire safety guidance and building regulations.

[edit] 2024 and 2025 amendments

Following the Building Safety Act 2022 and the creation of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), responsibility for reviewing and consulting on Approved Document B now sits with the BSR. Circulars 01/2024, 04/2024 and 05/2024 set out further amendments in advance of them taking effect.

The first tranche of these amendments took effect on 2 March 2025 and included:

Removal of references to BS 476-22 in relation to roofs, leaving BS EN 13501 as the sole standard with which roofs must comply - the first step in a phased withdrawal of the older British Standard 'national class' fire tests in favour of the European testing standard.
Strengthened requirements under Regulation 38 for the provision of fire safety information on completion of building work, including clearer handover procedures and timescales for supplying information to the responsible person.
A new requirement for sprinkler systems to be provided throughout all new care homes, regardless of their height (previously, sprinklers were required in blocks of flats over 11 metres, but not in all care homes).

[edit] 2026 and 2029 amendments

Further amendments to Approved Document B are due to take effect on 30 September 2026, principally requiring residential buildings with a top storey 18 metres or more in height to be served by more than one common staircase, together with related provisions for evacuation lifts. Transitional arrangements mean that projects that have already been notified to building control before 30 September 2026, and that are sufficiently progressed either by that date or within 18 months afterwards, may still be able to rely on the previous single-staircase guidance.

A final tranche of amendments is due to take effect on 2 September 2029, removing the remaining references to BS 476 fire resistance testing and making BS EN 13501 the sole fire testing standard referred to in the guidance. The extended timescale is intended to give the construction products industry time to develop the necessary testing and certification against the European standard.