Fire Safety and Building Safety

Students with hearing, vision and/or mobility differences will be asked to complete a Fire Evacuation Plan shortly after arriving in the Halls.

All UCL Accommodation is equipped with hearing impaired fire alarms (DMS/HFAS/VAD). Specific information about UCL Halls is available on the individual hall webpages in the building accessibility table.

If any students require fire safety information in an alternative format, they can contact the Accommodation Office.

• Smoking, including E-Cigarettes, is not permitted in you accommodation (or any UCL premises) 
• The use of candles, incense, fireworks, hookah and shisha pipes, Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) are not permitted in your accommodation 
• Always, switch off all electric appliances and lights when you leave your room and at night 
• Do not use paper light shades or paper masking on any light fitting 
• Do not use plastic or wicker waste paper bins and empty waste paper bins every day 
• Never hang washing on or near heaters and do not obstruct in any way the airflow around all types of heaters 
• Never leave the kitchen when you are cooking food and be especially careful with hot fat and oil 
• Do not cook or use cooking equipment in your bedrooms and BBQ's are not permitted 
• The use of portable heating in your room is strictly forbidden 
• Do not bring hazardous substances into your room even from laboratories or other UCL premises 
• Do not store any items in escape route corridors and staircases
• Portable Light Electric Vehicles (PLEV’s) are prohibited from UCL space and accommodation, this includes; E-bikes, E-scooters, E-skateboards and E-unicycles, any found will be removed by security with immediate effect

Access your halls General Regulations via the Fees, guidance and payment webpage. Log into your UCL account to access the Fire Safety SharePoint for more detailed information, including the most up to date technical notes.

Fees, guidance and payment 

All UCL halls are provided with comprehensive fire detection and warning systems designed to provide early detection warning of fire. A weekly test of the fire alarm will be conducted around the same time each week and will last approximately 60 seconds. If the alarm is activated outside of this time or sounding for longer than usual you should leave the building via your nearest emergency exit. Further information on the fire alarm and fire assembly point can be seen on fire action notices located in your bedroom, kitchen and by each storey and final exit.

To prevent accidental activation of smoke detectors: 

• Do not cook (including toasters) in bedrooms and only use designated kitchens, keeping the fire doors closed at all times  Do not use any spray under or near the smoke detector  
• Do not use a hairdryer or hair straighteners under or near the smoke detector 
• Please ensure that hair straighteners are unplugged when not in use 
• Be careful with the positioning of combustible materials near electric points 
• Smoking, including E-Cigarettes, is not permitted in your accommodation 
• Candles and aromatherapy burners are not permitted 
• Humidifiers are not permitted in your accommodation 

Any person found interfering in any way whatsoever with fire-fighting equipment or alarms or fire safety signage, other than for proper use, will be fined and necessary action taken as appropriate. Frivolous discharge of fire extinguishers will be charged to the individual or to all residents of the hall if the individual responsible is not known.

The core messages of the strategy are; 

• Fire safety training and knowledge saves lives. Providing fire safety training and information as part of our training and induction processes can stop fires happening in the first place.
• Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility; each of us must play a role in keeping our community safe.
• Ensuring everyone knows how to reduce the risk of fire occurring, how to raise an alarm in the event of a fire and what to do in the event of a fire alarm sounding. 

As part of this UCL have considered the audience, the information required and the engagement channels to be used.

UCL Accommodation has thousands of students moving in each year.

Before students arrive at UCL, they are provided with an electronic copy of the UCL Accommodation General Regulations which include in Section 1.11 - Prohibited Items,  Section 1.1 – Fire Safety Advice, Section 1.2 Emergencies in halls. Students agree to comply with the UCL Accommodation General Regulations when entering into their accommodation licence with UCL. 

Students will also receive a pre-arrival briefing which includes an on-line induction including fire safety. 

When a student arrives at their hall of residence, they are required to complete a fire safety induction process and attend a fire safety walk around their hall. Students who have not completed their fire safety walk or induction receive follow up emails from their Hall Team until the full process is complete. Students are instructed to attend the Hall Welcome Talk covering fire safety information. During settling in period an email newsletter centers on fire safety information.

A focus group is undertaken at the beginning of each term to ensure new residents feel comfortable with the material and information they have received, including fire safety, and UCL uses this feedback to adapt its new resident approach each year.

Fire Action Notices are provided in each room as well as a home booklet that provides more details on fire safety. 

During the summer some of the UCL Accommodation buildings are used for hotel style accommodation for individual guests or summer schools.

Fire Safety Information for the building and fire action notices are provided in each room. 

This residentials engagement strategy will not be applicable to hotel guests / summer school students, we will not consult with them regarding work although we will notify them if distributive or noisy work is taking place during their stay. Key issues relating to safety will be raised with Group Leaders for any summer school or group party.  Any feedback we receive from guests relating to safety, or their experience at UCL, will be discussed by the relevant site Accommodation team and action take to address if required.

UCL Accommodation welcomes and supports applications from students with additional requirements and will support them to ensure they are allocated rooms that meet their needs. 

Our communications will take into account students with diverse needs. 

For those students whose first language is not English, fire safety notices are available in other languages and available via the Fire Safety SharePoint.

During pre-application the accommodation office speaks to students to make sure their needs can be supported. This can include a tour of the site and suitability of accommodation for requirements. Information gathered feeds into the application process and is uploaded on the student record in StarRez, UCL’s resident and property management platform to oversee all resident bookings and securely store sensitive data.

After allocation of rooms students with additional requirements are contacted by the hall team, to explain to students the support available to them, they will work together to complete an Accommodation Risk Assessment to ensure that needs are recorded and met.  

The best way for UCL to make improvements is to hear what you have to say. If you wish to make a complaint about your experience within UCL Accommodation, you should take the following steps:

• Try to resolve the matter informally in consultation with the person who has caused the complaint. 
• If you are unable to resolve the matter you should put your complaint in writing to the Accommodation Manager via AskUCL
• Any complaints or feedback will follow the complaints procedure, including any received from guests during the summer period. 
• The full process is contained within the UCL Accommodation General Regulations found on the Fees, Guidance and Payment page.

The UCL Accommodation team is available to speak to residents either directly or via email with any feedback or concerns during their tenure with UCL Accommodation, however long. Residents can request a meeting (in person or via Teams) with the relevant Accommodation Manager for discussion of specific issues or to provide feedback on their experiences. Consideration will be given by the UCL accommodation team to the responses from students to ensure their concerns are addressed. 

Each year residents can elect volunteer representatives from the resident body to raise collective issues and identify ideas for improvement within the halls. These Hall Community Officers meet with the Accommodation Manager termly or for any specific issues and will report back to their community.  

Working with the UCL Accommodation Communications team targeted communications are sent to residents; this includes planned events and work, urgent issues and response to feedback.  Communications will take the form of emails to residents and customer surveys during check-in periods and after departure.  Working with Accommodation Managers to ensure communications are clear between all parties.

The information that UCL provides to students when consulting on building safety decisions, will vary depending on the nature and timing to the work.

Generally, UCL will communicate with students via email, noticeboards or digital screens, Facebook and direct communications with UCL Accommodation team.  Residents are able to contact UCL via AskUCL, speak to the Accommodation team in person, speak to a Student Residence Advisor (post-graduate students employed by Student Support and Wellbeing, or via social media and email.

Updates on construction works impacting UCL accommodation will be published on the construction works website as and when they become available to the UCL Accommodation team.

Should building work be required during term time, students will be notified of the works and consulted in advance including detail on their potential impact.

Where building safety decisions will impact on residents during their time (other than emergency works) then residents will have the opportunity to be consulted in advance and details of the current works made available on the UCL Accommodation webpages.  

For planned works residents will be made aware of what work is occurring and by whom, specific timelines and times of work, possible disruption or impact across the building and any mitigations that will take place to prevent unnecessary disruption.  

An email will be sent to all residents when an impact may occur effecting building safety and UCL will arrange for focus groups to be conducted with current residents.  

Focus groups will be open to all residents to attend or will be held with specific groups if the work will not impact the whole building; this information will be shared on the UCL Accommodation construction pages. 

Following these groups residents will be provided with an update on the outcome and any next steps.

All correspondence to residents will make clear the importance of their feedback into making decisions affecting the building and encouraging them to attend offered sessions or email their comments; 1:1 sessions can be arranged between the Accommodation Manager and a student if this route is preferred.

UCL will always aim to ensure any person with additional needs, that has been notified to UCL as part of the additional requirements and the Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan process, are unaffected by building works.    

UCL Accommodation Communications team will outline the communications they will send and the frequency to ensure residents are clear on how they will be communicated with during the project; all formal communications will be sent by email.  

Any areas that are required to be out of bounds will be clearly marked, and reminder emails issued before, during and after work is completed.  Wherever possible, except for urgent work, residents will have access to the common areas of the building, their assigned kitchens, and bedrooms. If this is not possible, UCL Accommodation will provide alternative provisions at all times which can include using spaces or facilities in other buildings or using a kitchen on a different floor or alternative space for a common room.  These alternatives will be communicated; timelines provided, and updates given. 

For emergency works UCL try to provide at least 72 hours’ notice to allow residents to raise any concerns to the Accommodation team, but occasionally emergency work must be completed sooner if there is a safety concern.  

Where emergency work is required such as responding to a building flood, consultation may not occur before work starts but at all times residents will have the right to provide feedback to the UCL Accommodation team who will respond and where deemed appropriate communicate their response to the wider-resident population.  For all works, UCL will communicate updates to residents to make them aware of any impacts and completion.

This proactive contact will afford the residents the foresight of potential challenges and enable them to make comments during consultations and/or informed decisions on their specific residency at the building. If there is urgent action required to make a building safe, i.e. due to fire damage or structural damage the affected students will be informed of the arrangements that will be put in place for them.  

In an emergency, UCL would consult directly with the residents with PEEPs and put in place adjustments to meet their specific needs.

During works specific project updates will be shared to ensure residents are kept up-to-date and to communicate any changes to work or timescales.

UCL will where practical complete significant building works outside of term time, when a student accommodation building is unoccupied.

Where work will be undertaken during building closure, i.e. between mid-June and mid-September, no consultation will take place with current residents during the planning phase as they will not be the residents inhabiting the accommodation when the work is complete.

No consultation will be undertaken with hotel/commercial guests who occupy the buildings for short periods in the summer months.

Any planned work that will be taking place when a new resident is moving in will be communicated as part of their pre-engagement accommodation offer to ensure they are aware of any disruption to their stay. As this work will have been planned before they are a UCL student or residence they will not be consulted on the works.

UCL prides itself on consulting with its students, staff and visitors across all elements of university practice and analysing the views and feedback received; this includes the feedback it receives from residents on building safety.  Following the consultation process, the UCL Accommodation and Campus Operations and Infrastructure teams will collate and discuss views received from residents.

When the final decision is made, the Accommodation team will give feedback to residents via email to make clear the next steps in the process. 

Consideration will be given by the UCL accommodation team to the responses from students to ensure their concerns are addressed. 

Ultimately, UCL has a duty of care to its residents and to ensure that they live in a safe and secure environment and although consultation is a key part of a resident’s experience, their length of tenure must be considered when final decisions are made to ensure UCL continues to provide a safe and security environment for current and future residents.

Building consultations will be held by the local Accommodation Manager and the Accommodation Leadership Team as evidence of these exercises, the feedback received, responses provided and result.  When UCL feels the feedback given is not reflective of wider resident body or has not received enough comment, alternative routes for consultation will be sought, e.g. in the form of surveys or additional drop-in sessions.

An annual assessment will be completed between each resident intake to reflect on the consultation exercises undertaken and the feedback received to assess if this approach is effective.  Part of the annual departure survey will ask departing residents if they felt they had the opportunity to consult and feedback on building safety and their experiences, and the outcome will be assessed and the Engagement Strategy adapted accordingly.

UCL will review the Residents Engagement Strategy in accordance with legislative direction set out in Regulation 10 of The Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks) (England) Regulations 2023.This strategy will be reviewed annually by Accommodation Leadership Team, feedback from students during the year will be considered when reviewing this strategy, as well as considering if the methods of engagement are suitable. 

A record of the review undertaken will be kept. Any feedback received during the year from students will be held in accordance with the privacy policies.

The Accountable Person is required to share core information about building safety with residents as part of the residents engagement strategy; the information is shared with residents via the Student Accommodation website.

The information that is provided is set out below;

• All UCL halls have extensive and robust fire safety arrangements in place. These measures have been developed in consultation with the UCL Fire Safety team and include: 
• Comprehensive fire risk assessments every three years, or sooner when there is a reason to suspect that it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates.
• The findings of the fire risk assessments for your building are available from the UCL Fire Team. 
• A fire safety handbook which details the fire and emergency arrangements and management arrangements to deal with incidents.
• Liaison and engagement with the local fire authority.
• Preventative and protective measures to mitigate the impact of fire in the building.

• Fire compartmentation and fire doors to provide barriers to fire spread and protect escape routes. 
• Comprehensive fire detection and alarm systems provide building occupants with early warning of fire to assist with building evacuation.  
• Firefighting equipment – Multipurpose water mist extinguishers are provided throughout the escape routes suitable for classes of fire relevant to your building. Fire blankets are also provided in kitchens.  

• Provision of information, instruction, and training, including student induction programmes. 
• Student regulations which prohibit hazardous equipment and activities - you can find more information in your UCL Accommodation General Regulations for your hall via the Fees, guidance and payment webpage.
• Termly room checks to confirm compliance with the student regulations.
• Building inspections and management arrangements - with a fire risk assessment review taking place annually, alongside local management weekly inspections.
• Inspection and maintenance of equipment installed within the halls.  
• Routine functional testing of fire precautions. 
• Termly fire evacuation drills. 
• Clearly marked evacuation routes and smoke ventilation systems.

The following UCL Accommodation buildings come under The Building Safety Act 2022, which sets safety requirements for buildings that are at least 18m or 7 storeys high:

• One Pool Street
• James Lighthill House
• New Hall
• Schafer House
• Goldsmid House
• John Dodgson House 
• Ian Baker House
• Astor College
• Frances Gardner House

UCL will be developing Building Safety Cases for these buildings to detail how the building is kept safe. 

If you have concerns about your building safety in any of the Student Accommodation buildings please contact your hall managers in the first instance, by emailing your hall team.