The £27 million funding will pay for the installation of fire alarm systems in buildings of all heights, rather than just being limited to those over 18 metres.
It means hundreds more buildings where leaseholders and residents have been forced by their freeholders to pay for costly fire safety patrols will now be able to install fire alarm systems instead at no cost to themselves, saving people on average £163 a month.
The Fund follows the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove’s warnings to industry that either they come forward and pay to fix the building safety crisis or the government will impose a solution in law.
Leaseholders in buildings awaiting the completion of remediation works are currently being forced to pay for Waking Watches, where a building is continually patrolled in case of a fire, by their building owners.
This additional funding will help end the misuse of this practice and encourage the installation of fire alarms, which are proven to be both more effective and cheaper in the long term, in an estimated 300 additional buildings.
A key focus of the government’s overhauled approach to building safety is restoring common sense to the market and ensuring a more proportionate approach to fire safety in buildings under 18 metres.
The Responsible Person (RP) – the person or business responsible for ensuring the safety of residents in their building – can apply for the fund and provide the evidence needed. They are encouraged to speak to their local Fire and Rescue Service about the installation of the fire alarms in their building and to keep leaseholders informed.
The fund will cover the upfront capital costs of installing an alarm system. The common fire alarm system should generally be designed in accordance with the recommendations of BS 5839-1 for a Category L5 system
To be eligible:
• the building must be located in England
• the building must be a residential building
• the building must have a Waking Watch in place where the costs have been passed on to leaseholders.
Social sector buildings where the Registered Provider can evidence that waking watch costs have been passed to leaseholders and the costs of installing an alarm will fall on leaseholders will also be eligible.
This is valid as of 10th February 2022.
The Bill aims to make it easier to amend or remove outdated ‘retained EU law’ – legacy EU law kept on the statute book after Brexit as a bridging measure – and will accompany a major cross-government drive to reform, repeal and replace outdated EU law.
These reforms will cut £1 billion of red tape for UK businesses, ease regulatory burdens and contribute to the government’s mission to unite and level up the country.
Many EU laws kept on after Brexit were agreed as a messy compromise between 28 different EU member states and often did not reflect the UK’s own priorities or objectives – nor did many receive sufficient scrutiny in our democratic institutions.
Having left the EU, the focus is on ensuring that regulations are tailor-made to the UK’s own needs. However, under current rules, reforming and repealing this pipeline of outdated EU law would take several years because of the need for primary legislation for many changes, even if minor and technical.
The new legislation will ensure that changes can be made more easily, so that the UK can capitalise on Brexit freedoms more quickly.
The Bill is also expected to end the special status that EU law still has in the UK legal framework. Despite the exit from the bloc, EU laws made before 1 January 2020 continue to have precedence in the domestic framework.
Officials across government are currently reviewing all EU retained laws to determine if they are beneficial to the UK. It is right that people know how much EU-derived law there is and how much progress government is making to reform it, so the government says it will make this catalogue public in due course.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said: “Getting Brexit Done two years ago today was a truly historic moment and the start of an exciting new chapter for our country.
“We have made huge strides since then to capitalise on our newfound freedoms and restore the UK’s status as a sovereign, independent country that can determine its own future.
“The plans we have set out today will further unleash the benefits of Brexit and ensure that businesses can spend more of their money investing, innovating and creating jobs.
“Our new Brexit Freedoms Bill will end the special status of EU law in our legal framework and ensure that we can more easily amend or remove outdated EU law in future.”
This is valid as of 9th February 2022.
All transfers of registrations following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU have now been completed, according to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). More than 8,000 UK-based registrations have been successfully transferred to companies in the EU, EEA or Northern Ireland, it says, adding that these companies must review and, if needed, update the information in these registrations
As the transfers have now been completed, safety information may need to be reviewed and updated, and administrative information, such as the company’s role in the supply chain, may also need to be revised by the new registrant, says the Agency.
If an update is required, registrants have up to three months to update administrative information or up to six, nine or 12 months for more complex updates. These timelines have been clarified in the Commission’s Implementing Regulation on dossier updates. The obligation to update applies to REACH registrations and previously notified substances (NONS) under the Dangerous Substances Directive.
All information in a registration dossier is checked for completeness, whether it is newly submitted or was already previously included in the registration. Since March 2021, ECHA also checks the completeness of the chemical safety reports.
Information on how to update a registration dossier is available on ECHA’s website.
Now that the transfer of all registrations has been completed, 2,964 UK-registrations were not transferred, and are therefore legally void. These are now indicated as ‘revoked’ in ECHA’s database and on ECHA’s website.
Background
Under REACH, companies are responsible for collecting information on the properties and uses of the substances they manufacture or import above one tonne a year.
This information is communicated to ECHA through a registration dossier containing the hazard information and, where relevant, an assessment of the potential risks that the use of the substance may pose as well as how these risks should be controlled.
The deadlines that need to be followed have been clarified in the Commission’s Implementing Regulation on dossier updates ((EU)2020/1435).
This is valid as of 7th May 2021.
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