Consultation outlines exemption route for some fire door approvals in England and Wales

Exemption proposal covers fire door work

Fire door installation and maintenance work in England and Wales could be allowed to bypass formal approval from building control bodies under proposals from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).

Inside Housing reported that the BSR has proposed a self-certification scheme for fire door work in both high-risk and lower-risk buildings.

The change would allow landlords to show that safety work complies with building regulations without going through the BSR gateway process.

The regulator said this would save “significant time and cost for those carrying out this type of work” and keep standards in place while improving transparency.

Last autumn, Lord Roe, chair of the BSR, told Inside Housing that minor work should be removed from the regulator’s oversight.

In January, the government launched a consultation on removing work linked to phone masts and fibre optic cables from the regulator’s scope after it was deemed lower risk.

Exemption sits within wider self-certification review

Inside Housing reported that the proposed changes to fire doors form part of a wider BSR review of self-certification.

Building work can already be self-certified and avoid checks from building inspectors if installers belong to a competent person scheme.

The BSR is reviewing the conditions of authorisation, a set of rules drawn up in 2016 that all competent person schemes must follow.

Its call for evidence covers governance and accountability, along with competence and training standards.

It also covers data reporting and enforcement.

In a statement published alongside the survey, the BSR said recent reviews had shown “persistent weaknesses” in the oversight of groups running the self-certification system.

The regulator also said it will consider how lessons from government retrofit schemes examined in the National Audit Office report from last autumn could be reflected in the conditions of authorisation.

It also referred to findings from the Competition and Markets Authority in 2023 on weak consumer understanding in the green heating and insulation sector.

Inside Housing reported that the regulator also referred to calls from the National Home Improvement Council last summer for stronger safeguards.

Consultation runs for three months

The consultation opened last Friday and will run for three months.

Government recommendations are expected before the end of the year.

Inside Housing also reported that the sector is still waiting for a formal plan to speed up remediation decisions.

Figures published this month showed decision times on these schemes had nearly halved to around 18 weeks for the most recent applications from late 2025 and early 2026.

A backlog remains.