Fire Safety Compliance
RPEEP Duties: What Responsible Persons Need to Do in 2026
What England's new residential evacuation planning duties mean in practice, including who is affected, what to record, and where portfolios tend to slip up.
Key takeaway
If your building falls in scope and you cannot show how residents who need help will evacuate, you have a compliance and life safety gap that needs action now.
From 6 April 2026, evacuation planning duties under the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 are in force in England.
For responsible persons, this is now an operational task, not a policy topic. If your building falls in scope, you need a process to identify residents who may need assistance, complete person-centred assessments where appropriate, and keep your building-level evacuation information accurate.
Most portfolios we see are not failing because people do not care. They are failing because the duty touches fire strategy, resident engagement, access planning, staffing, and documentation at the same time. Without a structured approach, gaps appear quickly.
What Changed on 6 April 2026
The legal position changed on 6 April 2026. If you are a responsible person for an in-scope residential building in England, there is now a specific duty to take reasonable steps to identify residents who may need help to evacuate in a fire, then offer a person-centred fire risk assessment for those residents.
You also need to maintain a building emergency evacuation plan that reflects what support may be needed and how that support fits with your overall fire procedures.
In plain terms: if someone asks how a resident who cannot self-evacuate would be supported, you should be able to show the process, the records, and the current plan.
Who Needs to Pay Attention Now
This is most urgent for dutyholders managing higher-rise and complex multi-occupied residential buildings in England, including private residential blocks, social housing portfolios, and mixed-use developments with residential elements.
If your teams are still relying on informal knowledge, old tenancy files, or one-off conversations with residents, that is usually where compliance risk starts.
The Four Gaps We See Most Often
1. Identification is ad hoc
Residents who need assistance are often known to one person on site but never captured in a consistent, reviewable process. When staff change, that knowledge goes with them.
2. The fire risk assessment and the evacuation plan are disconnected
The assessment says one thing, the site procedures say another, and the practical capability on site says something else again. Regulators and enforcing authorities will look at whether those documents align.
3. Access and egress controls are not checked together
Door hardware, access control release logic, refuge routes, and alarm cause and effect can conflict if they are not reviewed as one system. This is a common technical failure point.
4. Maintenance records do not support the plan
If evacuation support depends on fire detection, communication, door release, and related systems, your servicing and compliance records need to prove those systems are reliable.
A Practical 30 Day Action Plan
- Confirm scope: Verify which buildings in your portfolio are in scope and identify the named responsible person for each.
- Standardise resident engagement: Use one consistent process to identify residents who may need support, with clear privacy handling and review dates.
- Complete person-centred assessments: Prioritise higher-risk residents and document practical support needs, not generic statements.
- Test your building-level plan: Check evacuation procedures against real staffing levels, access arrangements, and alarm interfaces.
- Align technical systems: Review fire alarms, access control, communication points, and related maintenance records as one compliance package.
- Create an audit trail: Keep version-controlled records that show what was identified, what action was taken, and when reviews are due.
Why This Matters Beyond Enforcement
There is a compliance reason to act quickly, but there is also a practical one. In a real incident, unclear roles and untested assumptions cost time. Time is the one thing people do not have during evacuation.
Good evacuation planning is not about creating more paperwork. It is about making sure the building, the systems, and the people are ready to do the right thing under pressure.
Where FIDEC Can Help
FIDEC supports responsible persons and property teams with joined-up fire and security reviews, including fire alarm performance, access control interfaces, system maintenance evidence, and practical compliance documentation support.
If you need to close RPEEP-related gaps quickly, we can start with a site survey and a clear action plan so your next compliance review is based on evidence, not assumptions.
Contact FIDEC Security Solutions for a free site survey. Call 0333 3662 007 or email info@fidecss.co.uk.
Sources
Questions people ask
What changed on 6 April 2026?
On 6 April 2026, evacuation planning duties under the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force for relevant buildings in England. Responsible persons now need a process for identifying residents who may need help to evacuate and for planning suitable support. The practical work is record keeping, resident communication, reviews and action tracking.
Which buildings need to pay attention first?
Higher-risk multi-occupied residential buildings in England should pay attention first, especially higher-rise blocks, complex layouts, social housing portfolios and mixed-use buildings with residential parts. These are the buildings where evacuation planning, resident vulnerability and common-area fire safety records are most likely to be scrutinised. Start with the buildings where evacuation would be hardest to manage.
Do I need a person-centred assessment for every resident?
Not necessarily. The duty is to identify residents who may need help to evacuate and then offer person-centred assessment where appropriate, with the strongest focus on residents whose needs affect evacuation planning. You still need a fair process for gathering information, reviewing it and acting on it. Do not rely on assumptions about age, disability or tenancy type.
What records should I keep?
Keep records that show how residents were contacted, how needs were identified, what assessments were offered, what building-level plan was agreed and when the plan was reviewed. The record should also show actions, refusals, changes in circumstance and follow-up dates. Good records matter because they prove there is a live process, not a one-off file note.