The Government has updated its guidance under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, clarifying expectations around fire doors in residential and multi-occupied buildings.

The revised guidance, published in August, reinforces that fire doors do not necessarily need to be replaced if they met the requirements of Building Regulations at the time of installation and have since been appropriately inspected and maintained.

This update is intended to provide reassurance for building owners, managers, and residents, while underlining the importance of regular checks to ensure that fire doors remain in good working order.

FIS is reminding members that compliance is not just about product selection, but also about inspection, maintenance and record-keeping. Routine checks should be carried out in line with the regulations, and residents provided with clear information on the role of fire doors in maintaining building safety.

Growing concerns and legal challenges around acoustic performance claims led FIS in 2018 to take positive action and launch an acoustic verification scheme that covered glazed and demountable partitions and acoustic walls.  The scheme reviews test data through a third-party verification process (carried out by independent acoustic engineers), performs a series of checks to verify information is accurate and genuine against marketing claims.

Verified Products can be marketed with the FIS Acoustic Verified Certificate and listed as Acoustic Verified on NBS to provide reassurance to specifiers and users.  FIS members are poised to add a number of new product lines to the scheme and, as the verification cost is based on batch pricing, FIS is opening up the next round of verifications to all members to ensure that we can offer best value in bringing products into the scheme.

The scheme, developed through the relevant FIS Working Groups, established standard methodology for how tests should be conducted and reported.  This means products can be effectively compared and the potential for inaccurate or misleading information from undermining project integrity and responsible manufacturers is limited.  In 2024, for similar reasons, the scheme was extended to cover the validation of claims for acoustic pods.  Larger meeting room pods are marketed as flexible solutions to provide acoustic privacy. However, ISO 23351-1:2020 states that the pod should not occupy more than 5% of the volume of reverberation test chamber. For most test chambers, this limits the maximum pod size to 11m³, leaving this emerging sector to use inconsistent parameters when making marketing claims.  

The classification certificates will indicate to an acoustician that there is deep, verified data behind the classification allowing the acoustician to have a reliable dataset to use within their assessments. 

If you are interested in bringing your products into the scheme or adding to your range of already verified products, please email info@thefis.org and we’ll get details of next steps out to you.  Any questions call the FIS on 0121 707 0077.

For more details on how you can specify with confidence with the FIS Acoustic Verification Scheme, click here.