Interim measures for residential buildings, UK wide
Waking Watch and Interim Fire Safety Measures
A waking watch is expensive, unpopular with residents and only ever meant to buy time. AL23 Safety reviews whether yours is still justified, what should replace it and how fast, for residential building owners and managers across the UK.
What is a waking watch review?
An honest look at whether the patrol is still doing anything
A waking watch is a patrol of trained people who walk the building looking for fire and raise the alarm manually where the built fire safety measures cannot be relied upon. It compensates for a defect. Unsafe external wall construction, failed compartmentation, defective fire doors or an alarm that cannot warn everybody at once.
A review tests three things. Whether the original justification still holds. Whether the patrol delivers the coverage it is billed for. What the shortest route to standing it down looks like. National Fire Chiefs Council guidance is unchanged. Waking watch is a short-term measure only and should be replaced by a common fire alarm system as soon as reasonably practicable.
Who needs one
Blocks stuck on a patrol with no end date
- Blocks running a waking watch for months or years with no exit plan
- Buildings where an external wall appraisal identified a defect and an interim measure followed
- Blocks that moved from stay put to simultaneous evacuation and rely on patrols rather than an alarm
- Leaseholder groups and resident management companies challenging the cost and necessity of a patrol
- Freeholders and managing agents preparing an Interim Measures Alarm Fund application
- Buildings where remediation is programmed a long way out
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
No regulation names a waking watch. It is a risk control adopted under the general duties, which is exactly why it is so often kept too long. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and, under article 17, to keep fire safety measures in efficient working order. The Fire Safety Act 2021, in force 16 May 2022, confirmed that the Order applies to the structure, the external walls including cladding, balconies and windows, together with flat entrance doors opening onto common parts. That is the hook connecting a cladding defect to a live duty on the responsible person today.
Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022
, commenced 1 October 2023. Every responsible person must record the fire risk assessment in full, the fire safety arrangements and who carried out the assessment. Penalties for certain offences rose to level 5, an unlimited fine.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
, in force 23 January 2023. Above 11 metres, regulation 10 requires communal fire doors checked at least every three months and flat entrance doors using best endeavours at least every 12 months. At 18 metres or 7 storeys, further duties cover secure information boxes, external wall records, plans for the fire and rescue service and monthly firefighting equipment checks.
Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025
, in force 6 April 2026. This is live law. A specified residential building contains two or more domestic premises and is at least 18 metres or 7 storeys. It also qualifies where it is more than 11 metres and operates a simultaneous evacuation strategy. That second limb catches most buildings on a waking watch.
PAS 9980:2022
The code of practice for fire risk appraisal of external wall construction. It gives a risk-proportionate judgement rather than a pass or fail. It is not mandated. There is live debate in 2026 about whether it should be.
What the service covers
From justification to a costed replacement
- Review of the original justification and whether the defect it compensates for still exists in the same form
- Verification of what the patrol does, covering route, frequency, records, competence and how a fire would be raised at three in the morning
- Cost analysis against the alternative, since a common fire alarm system often pays for itself inside a year
- Specification of a common fire alarm system suited to the building, its evacuation strategy and its occupancy
- Whether the building should be on stay put or simultaneous evacuation, plus what has to be true for stay put to be reinstated
- Compartmentation and fire door sampling, usually the real reason stay put failed
- Interim Measures Alarm Fund eligibility and application support, with the evidence Homes England expects
- Resident communication so the change in strategy is understood rather than resented
- Evacuation arrangements for residents whose escape is compromised, feeding the emergency evacuation statements and the building plan
Our process
Read it, inspect it, then plan the exit
- 01
Document review
We read the fire risk assessment, the external wall appraisal, the patrol records and the fire and rescue service correspondence before we visit.
- 02
Site inspection
We inspect the common parts, the compartmentation, the fire doors, the alarm provision and the escape routes. We observe the patrol where practical.
- 03
Strategy decision
We set out whether stay put can be reinstated, whether simultaneous evacuation must continue and what would change that.
- 04
Replacement and funding
We specify the common fire alarm system and, where the building qualifies, support the Interim Measures Alarm Fund application through Homes England.
- 05
Stand-down and handover
We define the conditions for ending the patrol and confirm in writing when they are met so the decision is evidenced rather than assumed.
What you get
A verdict on the patrol and a way off it
- A review report stating plainly whether the patrol is justified, over-specified or run badly
- A written evacuation strategy position, stay put or simultaneous, with the evidence behind it
- A common fire alarm system specification ready to go out to tender
- A cost comparison between continued patrol and alarm installation over a realistic remediation timeline
- A funding position covering Interim Measures Alarm Fund eligibility and the evidence required
- A stand-down plan with named conditions so the patrol ends on evidence rather than on hope
What we need from you
The paperwork and access to the building
- The current fire risk assessment and any external wall appraisal, including a PAS 9980 assessment
- The waking watch contract and at least three months of patrol records
- Details of existing alarm and detection provision, including any building-wide system
- The remediation programme and its expected completion date
- Access to common parts and ideally a sample of flats
Why AL23 Safety
Independent, with nothing to sell you
We have no patrol to sell
We do not supply waking watch staff and we do not install alarms. Our only interest in the answer is that it is correct.
We say when it should have stopped already
Where a patrol has become a habit rather than a control, we write that down and set out the fix.
One team, three disciplines
External wall appraisal, fire strategy and fire risk assessment sit in-house so the reason for the interim measure and the plan to remove it come from the same people.
UK wide
Manchester based, working on residential buildings across the UK.
Get the patrol on a timetable
Interim should mean interim
If your building has been on a waking watch for months with no end date, that is the conversation to have. Tell us the height, the defect and the current arrangement.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usNo. It is a temporary control adopted where the fire risk assessment concludes the building cannot be relied upon to warn or protect occupants on its own. National Fire Chiefs Council guidance treats it as a short-term measure only, to be replaced by a common fire alarm system as soon as reasonably practicable. A patrol running indefinitely is a sign the risk assessment has not been revisited.
It closed on 31 March 2026 after approving around £71.7 million across 801 buildings. Its replacement is the Interim Measures Alarm Fund, launched on 1 April 2026, worth £62.7 million and running to 2035, administered by Homes England. We help you assemble the evidence and make the case rather than promise an outcome, since eligibility and award remain matters for the fund.
Sometimes. Stay put depends on compartmentation performing as designed, meaning walls, floors, service penetrations and flat entrance doors all doing their job. Where the failure was in the external wall, the answer turns on the external wall fire risk appraisal and on what remediation is complete. We will tell you honestly when the evidence does not yet support reinstating stay put.
Significantly. A building over 11 metres on a simultaneous evacuation strategy is a specified residential building under the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, in force since 6 April 2026. That brings duties to identify relevant residents, offer a person-centred fire risk assessment, prepare an emergency evacuation statement for each and prepare a building emergency evacuation plan reviewed annually. Our residential evacuation planning covers that.
Cost is driven by the size of the building, the number of cores, how much survey work the compartmentation and fire doors need and whether you also want the alarm specification and funding support. A single core block is a short piece of work. A large estate is not. The saving usually dwarfs the fee, since patrol costs run continuously while a review is a one-off. Second opinions for resident management companies and leaseholder groups are a common instruction. Our fire risk assessment work is BAFE SP205 third-party certified, independently certificated by SSAIB.
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