Section 20 is a national Act which is applied to local areas in London. The act gives power

for Local authorities to to consider the need for specific requirements relating to fire safety (excluding means of escape) for large buildings. The Act came about due to the experiences of fighting fires in tall and large buildings in London and therefore the fire safety measures are concerned with provisions to assist the fire service. Similar experience in the metropolitan boroughs brought about similar Act in other large cities.

Section 20 was one of the pioneering Acts which considered such provisions as compartmentation, recognising the role of sprinklers, the provision of fire fighting stairways, smoke ventilation fire warning systems and requirements on plant such as high powered boilers and transformer rooms.

As the build environment broadened in the areas outside London and the metropolitan boroughs, the National Building regulations, also began to recognise the need for provisions to assist fire fighting in tall and large buildings and provisions such as fire fighting stairways became a requirement of the National building regulations.

A review took place in 2005 to consider whether section 20 and similar Acts in other metropolitan boroughs, still has a role to play. The review concluded that where requirements were duplicated in national building regulations the requirement should be dropped in Section 20. The remaining provision should however remain.

This broadly means that section 20 has the power to require the following:-

1. Fire extinguishing appliances and installations
   

2. Effective means of removing smoke in case of fire.
   

3. Adequate means of access to the exterior of the site of the building for fire brigade personnel and appliances.
   

4. Requirements for special fire risk areas (as defined in the Act)
   

The Act applies to certain areas in Inner London as shown on the map below.

The Act applies to certain building types and sizes - for illustrations click this link.

Maintenance

Similar to the National Building regulations, the Act does not include requirements for maintenance, as the Regulatory reform (fire safety) order covers maintenance of fire safety provisions. therefore when carrying out a risk assessment under the latter fire risk assessors will inspect and make recommendations regarding the maintenance of provisions installed in the building under section 20.

Where can I obtain more information about section 20?

Local building control authorities in the above areas will have a list of existing buildings covered by the Act.

The London District Surveyors Association publish a code of practice for section 20 buildings which can be purchased from their site