Response 789222282

Back to Response listing

Information Collection

2. By making a submission to this consultation you agree to the collection of the information you provide in your submission; and the use and disclosure of the information you provide in your submission as outlined above.

Please select one item
(Required)
Radio button: Unticked Publish response
Radio button: Ticked Publish response anonymously (this will remove personal identifiers including, name and organisation)
Radio button: Unticked Do not publish

Principle 1- Installation and testing, certification and maintenance of nominated fire safety systems is regulated

9. Do you agree that the installation and testing, certification and maintenance of the fire safety systems listed in Attachment A should be regulated?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure

10. Are there any additional fire safety systems not captured in the list?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If Yes/Unsure, list the other fire safety systems
YES.

Whilst the list captures the spectrum of fire safety systems, it groups these broadly into 10 types. By comparison some jurisdictions have existing regulations that expands these types to in excess of 30 individual systems and pieces of equipment (fire extinguishers are considered equipment, not systems). For example, Clause 166 of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation which defines statutory fire safety measures.

It’s important for the industry that simple blanket descriptions used in Attachment A like “Fire and smoke rated construction (for tested systems includes all access panels, doors and penetrations)” are supported by guidance that nominates particular measures in those systems that are intended to be captured and these are reconciled against the list of measures established by State and Territory regulation to deliver consistency.

This could be achieved by publishing a matrix that maps measures identified by existing State and Territory regulations to a single national consolidated list.

Harmonising the list of fire safety measures will help to ensure that they are captured at each stage of the building lifecycle, not just during design and installation or not just during routine service and maintenance.

Furthermore, if the systems nominated in Attachment A are of such importance to life safety and the objectives of the NCC that they are regulated for installation, testing, certification and maintenance, it follows that it is important to identify that they include conforming products.

Product conformity is the foundation of safety outcomes. If products aren’t conforming, none of the other proposed controls regarding installation, testing, certification and maintenance will deliver the objectives of the NCC with confidence. There is significant disparity between the product conformity requirements of the NCC for individual fire safety systems.

For example, the NCC Evidence of Suitability (EoS) requirements for Volume One provide multiple options for demonstrating product EoS that are of varying assessment rigour and not in any order or hierarchy. This is addressed in the ABCB Discussion Paper regarding Australia’s Draft National Product Assurance Framework.

Alongside the EoS provisions, Australian Standards referenced in the NCC for some active systems like sprinkler systems prescribe the use of third-party certified product, establishing a bar of consistent assessment rigour to have confidence in the conformity of these products. Without any discernable reason, this is at odds with other fire safety systems and equipment like passive products. These can be subject to a single test in accordance with the EoS provisions. Unlike sprinklers, this means no production surveillance, no independent directory listing and no product marking requirements. This makes it difficult to have confidence conformity has been achieved or to conduct inspection and enforcement activities.

Changes to the EoS provisions to make third-party product certification mandatory was recommended by the Federal Senate Inquiry for high-risk products. Defining high-risk products was not included in this recommendation however in light of the importance of fire safety systems as identified by this discussion paper, consideration should be given to using the product categories in Attachment A as those where consistent product conformity expectations and the use of third-party product certification is warranted.

11. Do you agree that fire extinguishers and/or mechanical air handling systems do not require a declaration of installation compliance unless where requested by the statutory building surveyor?

Please select one item
Radio button: Unticked Yes
Radio button: Ticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No, provide alternative suggestions on how these systems should be regulated for installation, testing and certification.
In relation to fire extinguishers, statutory building surveyors are more than capable of determining themselves that installation satisfies compliance requirements.

Mechanical air handling systems that form part of the smoke hazard management system for a building are critical to the fire safety strategy and more complex than a single piece of equipment like a portable fire extinguisher. Furthermore, these systems can be significantly complex and difficult to conform compliance without witnessing during the installation process or specialist equipment and skills to measure system performance that a statutory building surveyor is unlikely to have access to. Accordingly, it seems appropriate that installers of these systems also provide a declaration that they have completed installation as required by the approved design.

Principle 2- Installation and testing of fire safety systems is undertaken by registered practitioners

12. Do you agree with the recommendation that the fire system installer or plumber must test the installed fire safety systems and provide a Declaration of Installation Compliance?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide alternative suggestions.
Yes, however this should be subject to the fire system installer or plumber being registered in an appropriate category and having not only the appropriate qualification, but the appropriate individual units of competency within this qualification, or in addition to it, that relate to the fire safety system in question.

Principle 3 – Certification of fire safety systems is mandatory and is undertaken by independent and registered practitioners

13. Do you agree that the certification of the fire safety systems listed in Attachment A, should be undertaken by an independent and registered fire systems installer or plumber?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide further comment.
Yes, however this should be subject to the fire system installer or plumber being registered in an appropriate category and having not only the appropriate qualification, but the appropriate individual units of competency within this qualification, or in addition to it, that relate to the fire safety system in question.

Furthermore, for fire system installers or plumbers conducting certification activity, their competency should exceed that of an installer to also include competent understanding and application of:
(i) the process of identifying the approved design requirements;
(ii) the process to identify that conforming product has been used in a compliant way; and
(iii) the process to determine that the installed fire safety system is capable of achieving the system performance targets expected by the approved design.

14. Should the independent certification be undertaken by a fire systems installer or plumber with a Certificate IV qualification or should any additional qualification requirements be left to the discretion of the individual jurisdiction?

Provide comment
Refer to answer to question 1 above. There should be national consistency regarding this, not a fragmented federated approach.

15. Are the requirements for an independent fire systems installer or plumber adequate to ensure no conflict of interest and independence exists between the original fire systems installer or plumber and independent fire systems installer or plumber?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide further comment.
Yes, except that in some instances the independent fire systems installer or plumber providing a Certificate of Compliance may be involved in conducting their own testing in order to determine that the system performance parameters of the approved design have been met by the installed system. Therefore recommendation 5 should be varied to accommodate this situation.

16. Should the independent fire systems installer or plumber be independent of the entity (e.g. company or business) that performed the installation or can it be another employee from the same entity?

Please select one item
Radio button: Unticked Can be from the same entity
Radio button: Ticked Must be independent of the entity that performed the installation
Provide further comment
Yes, they should be independent of the entity otherwise they have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in the outcome which must be avoided as they are essentially serving the interest of the statutory building surveyor and the community at large by using their specific skills and knowledge to determine that the approved design has been delivered.

17. Do you agree that the owner or building approval applicant should engage the independent fire systems installer or plumber, ensuring they are competent and registered as per the NRF?

Please select one item
Radio button: Unticked Yes
Radio button: Ticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide further comment.
No. The statutory building surveyor who will need to accept the Certificate of Compliance from the independent fire systems installer or plumber should engage them. The independent fire systems installer or plumber is effectively performing an inspection and certification role on the statutory building surveyors behalf (similar to a building inspector) to determine that the approved design has been delivered for an aspect of the design that the statutory building surveyor may not have the appropriate skills, knowledge, experience or apparatus to determine alone.

Perhaps the compromise is that the owner or building applicant could engage the independent systems installer or plumber to undertake this role, however the statutory building surveyor can ultimately determine to accept the certification or not if they are concerned about the competency of the individual to perform the task.

Principle 4 – Statutory building surveyor is responsible for inspecting certified fire safety systems prior to issuing an occupancy approval or final certificate

18. Do you agree on the role of the statutory building surveyor in relation to visual inspections of certified fire safety systems installation?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide alternative suggestions
Some building surveyors do this better than others based on their experience and competency. It’s important to be very clear about the extent of any visual inspection by the statutory building surveyor and how this is intended to overlap and/or complement the Declaration of Installation and Certificate of Compliance for the installation.

19. Should a fire safety designer (fire safety engineer) undertake the inspection of fire safety systems involving Performance Solutions prior to occupancy approval or should this be the role of the statutory building surveyor?

Please select all that apply
Checkbox: Ticked Fire safety designer (fire safety engineer)
Checkbox: Unticked Statutory building surveyor
Further comment
Yes, fire safety designers should undertake inspection of fire safety systems involving Performance Solutions prior to occupancy approval. Again though, it’s important to be clear about the extent of this inspection and how it is intended to complement or overlap with the role of the statutory building surveyor. By their very definition Performance Solutions are nuanced designs and their success can often rely on the integration between multiple fire safety systems and building elements in a very specific manner determined by the designer. To have more confidence about the implementation of Performance Based designs it’s important that the designer who has developed the parameters and functional expectations of such designs is utlised to determine this has been implemented as expected to achieve the required objectives.

Principle 5 – Routine maintenance of essential fire safety systems is regulated, undertaken by registered practitioners and reported to the building regulator annually

20. Do you agree that the occupancy approval should state which fire safety systems must be maintained and to which standard and maintenance interval?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
Provide comments
Yes, however there are some critical definitions that need to be better implemented.

The occupancy approval should state:

(i) Which fire safety systems must be maintained;

(ii) The level of system performance they should achieve;

Avoid the use of the term standard. People perennially confuse this with Standard, meaning “I used a nominated Standard as the methodology for this activity” rather than “what standard or level of performance is expected to be achieved”
Where possible this should identify key system performance parameters from installation Standards referenced by the approved design not just dumping in a reference to the entire design Standard i.e. state the flow and pressure values and other key aspects of AS 2419.1 hydrant systems.
This is important baseline data information linking directly to the approach of the Australian Standard for routine service of fire protection systems and equipment AS 1851. It should be recorded and referenced throughout the building lifecycle.

(iii) The expected methodology for routine servicing;

This includes the intervals and processes for inspect, test and preventative maintenance. AS 1851 would be the appropriate Standard for this for most fire safety systems complemented by some others but also any specific routine servicing methodologies required by Performance Solutions as nominated by the fire safety designer and/or statutory building surveyor.

(iv) Supported by an expectation to maintain systems and equipment in a condition to achieve the level of system performance expected.

21. Do you agree that the maintenance of specified fire safety systems should only be undertaken by registered fire systems installers or plumber?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide further comment.
Yes, were rectification maintenance has been identified by routine servicing activities a registered fire systems installer or plumber should conduct this work as it requires the same skillset as installation.

However, the routine servicing work (inspect, test and preventative maintenance) requires a different or sometimes more specific competency and individuals who have the available national qualifications for this task should be able to conduct this work also, but not rectification maintenance.

22. Do you agree that annual maintenance statements should be prepared and lodged with the state or territory building regulator for Class 2-9 buildings?

Please select one item
Radio button: Ticked Yes
Radio button: Unticked No
Radio button: Unticked Unsure
If No/Unsure, please provide further comment.
Yes, however there should me more tangible benefits associated with doing this, i.e. informing proactive inspection and enforcement activities by the regulator.