Floor and Building Plans

Regulation 6 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require responsible persons of high-rise residential buildings in England to share up-to-date plans of the building with the fire and rescue service. The plans will be used by operational fire-fighters during an incident and need to be clear, simple and easy to use.  

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) already holds plans for many of the high-rise premises in Greater Manchester. In order to collect the information in the most efficient manner with the last burden on business, we will collect information in tranches over the next 12 months.

When you click the link to submit plans and begin to complete the form you will be directed as to whether we require your information at this time.

Please see the guidance below for preparing and storing plans.

Floor Plans

Floor plans must show the location of specific equipment as defined by the Regulations. The plans must clearly identify and distinguish between the following: 

• Passenger lifts 
• Lift for use by firefighters 
• Evacuation lifts 
• Inlets / outlets for dry-rising mains 
• Inlets / outlets for wet-rising mains 
• Smoke control systems 
• Suppression systems

A plan will need to be prepared for each floor; where floors are identical it is permissible to prepare a single plan providing the floors to which the plans refer to are clearly indicated.

Building Plan

A separate single page plan must be provided which shows the building and its immediate surroundings. The building plan will enable firefighters to orientate themselves upon arrival and must provide information on access and key firefighting both inside and outside the building.

The full list of information to be provided on the building plan is defined in the Regulations and includes all of the following:

• the environs of the building
• details of the use of the building, for example for commercial or residential purposes
• access for fire and rescue appliances
• the dimensions of the building
• information on the number of storeys of the building and the number of basement levels (if any
• information regarding the presence of maisonettes or scissor section flats;
• inlets for dry-rising mains;
• inlets for wet-rising mains;
• the location of shut-off controls for any sprinklers;
• access points for the building
• the location of the secure information box
• the location of the controls for any smoke control system
• the location of any firefighting shaft
• the location of main stairways in the building
• the location of the controls for any evacuation alert system.

Plan and floor plan guidance

To simplify the process of updating new plans or updating existing plans, GMFRS recommends that you use the symbols contained in this guidance.

Although, these differ from those symbols recommended in the Code of Practice for the Provision of Premises Information Boxes in Residential Buildings from National Fire Chiefs Council, these are the symbols that GMFRS already use and which are understood by incident commanders.

Plans should be clear and simple to use and must include a key to the symbols used on the plan.

GMFRS symbols guidance and icon comparison table (Excel, 787KB)

GMFRS symbol files (Zip, 739KB)

Example of a building plan (PDF, 241KB)

Example of a floor plan (PDF, 342KB)

Storage of hard copies

The responsible person is also required to provide a copy of the plans inside the premises’ secure information box. The plans should be sized to fit on A3 paper and printed in colour to assist in easy identification of the plan symbols. 

To ensure a copy of the plans can remain with the incident commander at all times as well as be used by firefighters inside the building, at least two copies of each plan should be provided inside the secure information box. Recognizing how the plans will be used and the conditions they may be exposed to, plans should be laminated to ensure they remain usable throughout the course of an incident.

Further information on GMFRS recommendations for documents to be stored in a premises secure information box to assist incident commanders in dealing with incidents at your premises can be found here.

Submission of plans

Submit floor and building plans - form (external site)