What Is a Waking Watch?
In the years since the Grenfell Tower fire, and with the building safety regime that has followed it, a great many people living in and managing higher-rise residential buildings have had to become familiar with a term they had never previously needed, the waking watch. For anyone responsible for a block where fire safety defects have come to light, it is one of the first measures likely to be raised, and it is worth understanding clearly what it is, when it is appropriate, and why it should always be regarded as a temporary step rather than a permanent fixture.
What is a waking watch?
The government defines a waking watch as a system whereby suitably trained people continually patrol all floors and the exterior of a building in order to detect a fire, raise the alarm and carry out evacuation management. In plain terms, it is a continual fire patrol, present at all times the risk requires it, whose purpose is to make sure there is sufficient warning in the event of a fire to support the building's evacuation strategy. If those on watch discover or are told of a fire, they attend immediately, assess it, call the fire and rescue service where necessary, support residents to evacuate, and liaise with the firefighters when they arrive.
When is a waking watch recommended?
A waking watch is an interim measure, used while something more permanent is put in place. The relevant guidance is the National Fire Chiefs Council's Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance, the fourth edition of which was published in August 2022 and remains current. It explains that where a building has been identified as higher risk because of an unsuitable external wall system or other fire safety defects, short-term interim arrangements can be adopted to manage and mitigate the risk to life while the underlying problems are addressed.
Those arrangements can range from simple steps, such as removing potential ignition sources, through to a change in the building's evacuation strategy, moving from a Stay Put approach to simultaneous evacuation supported by a common fire alarm and, sometimes, a waking watch. Where defects have been found and the responsible person has recognised that the building can no longer safely rely on Stay Put, a waking watch is sometimes recommended to support simultaneous evacuation in the immediate term, typically while a common fire alarm system is being installed. The decision to make that change should flow from the building's fire risk assessment, not from a blanket assumption that every defect requires staffing on site.
It is meant to be temporary
This is the point that matters most, and the current guidance is emphatic about it. The fourth edition of the Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance actively seeks to discourage the prolonged use of a waking watch, and to steer building owners towards a common fire alarm system, which is both safer, because it removes the human margin of error inherent in a patrol, and very much cheaper to run. The guidance recommends that where a waking watch is put in place, the responsible person should, as soon as practicable and within a month, make a plan for moving the building away from it, covering costings, timeframes, a resident engagement strategy and the necessary procurement, with the installation of a common fire alarm system being the usual route. Such systems are generally designed to BS 5839-1 as a Category L5 system, and consideration is often given to specifying one that can later be upgraded to a BS 8629 evacuation alert system for when the building reverts to Stay Put after remediation.
The cost is the reason for the urgencyA waking watch is expensive. Government data from 2020 put the median cost at around £11,361 per building each month, a figure that mounts quickly when remediation can take years, whereas the one-off cost of installing a common fire alarm is typically a small fraction of running a patrol over the same period. The financial case for transitioning away from a waking watch as quickly as it can safely be done is, for most buildings, overwhelming.
Who pays, and the funding picture
The question of who bears these costs has been one of the most contentious in the whole building safety crisis, and the position has moved significantly in residents' favour. Under the leaseholder protections in Part 5 of the Building Safety Act 2022, since strengthened by the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act, most qualifying leaseholders can no longer be required to pay for waking watch and alarm costs, with the liability shifting to landlords and building owners. There are exceptions, such as non-qualifying leaseholders, but the broad effect has been to move these costs away from ordinary residents.
Government funding has also evolved through several rounds, from the original Waking Watch Relief Fund through successive Waking Watch Replacement Funds aimed at paying for the common alarm systems that allow a building to stand a patrol down. That funding stream closed to new applications at the end of March 2026, and the government has set out a new Interim Measures Alarm Fund, worth £62.7 million and delivered through the Cladding Safety Scheme, to continue supporting alarm installation in at-risk residential buildings awaiting remediation. Anyone managing such a building should check the current eligibility position, since these schemes change, and keep clear records of the interim measures in place and their costs.
What this means for those managing buildings
For a managing agent, resident management company or freeholder, the sensible approach follows the grain of the guidance. The starting point is a competent fire risk assessment that establishes whether the building's evacuation strategy genuinely needs to change and whether interim measures are warranted, since a waking watch applied where it is disproportionate to the risk is both costly and, the guidance now recognises, not always necessary. Where a watch is needed, a plan to replace it with a common fire alarm should be made promptly, residents should be kept properly informed, and the building's evacuation arrangements should be clear to everyone who lives there.
An independent view, with nothing to sellWe carry out fire risk assessments and advise on whether a change of evacuation strategy and interim measures are genuinely needed, but we do not provide waking watch services or sell or install fire alarm systems. That means our recommendation on whether your building needs a waking watch, and on how quickly it can safely transition away from one, is driven solely by the risk and the guidance.
If your building has been told it needs a waking watch, or already has one and you want to understand how to move beyond it, the most reliable starting point is a competent fire risk assessment that looks honestly at the building's risk and its evacuation strategy. As independent assessors covering the North West, North Wales and the West Midlands, we are glad to give you a clear and impartial view.
Dealing with a waking watch on your building?
We can assess whether a change of evacuation strategy and interim measures are genuinely needed, and help you plan the move to a permanent solution, with nothing to sell you either way. If you would like to discuss it, please get in touch.
Get in touch Managing AgentsThis article is provided for general guidance and does not constitute professional advice for any specific premises. It refers to the National Fire Chiefs Council Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Building Safety Act 2022 and related funding schemes current at the time of writing. Funding schemes and eligibility change; current details should be confirmed with the relevant government guidance. Considerable care has been taken to ensure accuracy at the time of writing, but legislation and guidance change over time. Fletcher Risk Management Limited provides Fire Risk Assessments, Fire Door Inspections and Fire Safety Training across the North West, North Wales and the West Midlands.