Are UK Fire and Rescue Services Ready for RPEEPs?

March 23, 2026

With just three weeks remaining until the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 come into force on 6 April, new research from the Building Safety Register raises important questions about the public facing preparedness of the UK Fire and Rescue Service.

Three weeks ago we published our initial assessment reviewing how prepared Fire and Rescue Services appear to be for the introduction of Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans, RPEEPs. These regulations place significant new duties on Responsible Persons in residential buildings, particularly around planning for the evacuation of residents who may need assistance in an emergency.

The findings at that time suggested a concerning lack of preparedness. With the commencement date approaching rapidly, we have now repeated the assessment to see whether the readiness picture has improved.

The results show some marginal progress, but the overall position remains well behind what might reasonably be expected given the scale of the regulatory change.

Our updated assessment reveals

Homepage visibility: Only 4 of 43 Fire and Rescue Services currently feature the new RPEEP regulations on their homepage. Although not specifically required to do so the Fire and Rescue Authorities do have a responsibility to promote the new post Grenfell regulations.

Information accessibility: 60 percent reference RPEEPs somewhere on their website if users actively search or dig for the information. We would like to see much clearer signposting to this content.

Digital submission capability: Just 33% percent of services, that have expressed a preference are accepting digital Emergency Evacuation Statement (EES) Summary and Building Emergency Evacuation Plan (BEEP) information.

While the direction of travel is positive, these figures remain far from reassuring given the new responsibilities now placed on Responsible Persons and the importance of the regulatory change as identified by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

Guidance is beginning to emerge

There are signs of progress and movement across the sector, albeit very close to the Go-Live date.

The National Fire Chiefs Council, NFCC, has now published two guidance videos along with a draft press release that Fire and Rescue Services can use to support communication around the new regulations.

However, individual services appear to be taking different operational approaches, and in several cases these preferences have not been clearly communicated publicly.

What this means for Responsible Persons

The introduction of the RPEEP Regulations represents a significant shift in expectations for those responsible for the management of high-rise and some (simultaneous evacuation) mid-rise residential buildings.

Responsible Persons must now consider how evacuation plans will work for residents who may need assistance, document those arrangements, and with explicit consent share relevant information with Fire and Rescue Services.

However, if Fire and Rescue Services themselves have not yet established clear and consistent processes for receiving or managing that information, Responsible Persons are left operating in an uncertain environment.

This is not simply an administrative issue. Clarity around information sharing is critical if evacuation strategies are to work effectively during an emergency.

Continuing to monitor readiness

Building Safety Register will continue to publish updated readiness assessments weekly in the run up to the commencement of the regulations.

If you have intelligence on how your local Fire and Rescue Service is planning to operate in relation to RPEEPs, we would welcome hearing from you.These findings were also discussed during our recent “RPEEPs, One Month to Go” webinar with Elspeth Grant, which you can watch below :

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