In short
- Regulation 38 requires fire safety information to be given to the responsible person on completion or occupation.
- It applies to new buildings, extensions and material changes of use where the Fire Safety Order will apply.
- For higher-risk buildings, a fire and emergency file is part of the Gateway 2 application, and information is handed over as part of the golden thread.
- Missing handover information is a major reason existing buildings end up needing retrospective fire strategies.
What Regulation 38 says
Regulation 38 of the Building Regulations 2010 applies where building work involves the erection or extension of a building, or a material change of use, and the building will be covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 once in use. The person carrying out the work must give fire safety information to the responsible person no later than the date of completion, or the date of occupation if that's earlier.
"Fire safety information" means information about the design and construction of the building, and the services, fittings and equipment provided, that will help the responsible person operate and maintain the building with reasonable safety.
Why it matters
The responsible person must carry out a fire risk assessment and manage the building safely. Without the design information, they – and their fire risk assessor – have to guess how the building is supposed to work: what the evacuation strategy is, where the compartment lines are, how the smoke control system operates. That's how many existing buildings end up with FRAs full of assumptions, and needing a retrospective fire strategy.
What a good handover pack contains
- The as-built fire strategy and fire strategy drawings – escape routes, compartment lines, fire door ratings, firefighting facilities
- The evacuation strategy and how the alarm system supports it
- Specifications and commissioning records for fire safety systems – detection and alarm, emergency lighting, smoke control, sprinklers, dry or wet risers, firefighting lifts
- The cause-and-effect matrix for interlinked systems
- Fire door schedules
- Compartmentation and fire-stopping records, ideally with photographs taken before ceilings were closed up
- External wall build-ups, cavity barrier details and the test evidence for the products used
- Maintenance and testing requirements for each system
- Any departures from guidance and the assumptions they rely on, such as management procedures
Higher-risk buildings: the fire and emergency file and golden thread
For higher-risk buildings, the rules go further:
- A fire and emergency file must form part of the Gateway 2 application to the Building Safety Regulator, and it must be project-specific.
- Information about the building is kept as the golden thread during design and construction and handed over on completion to the accountable person, under the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023.
See the golden thread and Gateway 2 rejections.
Common failures
- Generic O&M manuals with product data sheets but no building-specific fire strategy
- Design-stage strategies that were never updated to as-built
- No photographic record of fire-stopping and cavity barriers
- Information lost when the building changed hands or managing agents
For managing agents taking on a new building
Ask the developer or previous manager for the Regulation 38 information as a condition of taking over. If it doesn't exist, plan for a retrospective fire strategy and compartmentation survey early, before the first fire risk assessment is due.
A Regulation 38 checklist for developers
Before handover, confirm you can give the responsible person:
- The as-built fire strategy and drawings
- Commissioning certificates for every fire safety system
- The cause-and-effect schedule
- Fire door and fire damper schedules
- Fire-stopping and cavity barrier records with photographs
- External wall build-ups and test evidence
- Maintenance and testing requirements for each system
- Any management assumptions the strategy relies on
Our fire strategy reports include as-built strategies for handover, and our Building Safety Act support covers fire and emergency files and the golden thread.
How we can help
We match each project to a qualified specialist and confirm the scope, the named professional and a fixed fee before you commit.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk – Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023, regulation 38
- FPA – RISCAuthority guidance on Regulation 38
- Walker Morris – How to successfully apply for Gateway 2
This guide is general information based on the law and guidance in England as at 8 November 2026. It isn't legal advice – for advice on a specific building, get in touch.