# The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, Note: Explanatory note

Extent: E+W

(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005 (“the 2005 Regulations”) (S.I. 2005/3208). The 2005 Regulations prescribe the method for assessing the seriousness of hazards of a prescribed description and accordingly whether a hazard is a category 1 or category 2 hazard for the purposes of Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 (c. 34). This method takes into account both the likelihood of harm occurring and the severity of harm if it were to occur. The 2005 Regulations also prescribe fire hazards for the purposes of section 10 of that Act.
In overview, these Regulations amend the prescribed method for assessing the seriousness of hazards in housing in order to make it more easy to understand and apply. They also amend some of the prescribed descriptions of hazards.
Regulation 4 of the 2005 Regulations prescribes a fire hazard for the purposes of section 10 of the Housing Act 2004 as one where the risk of harm arises from exposure to uncontrolled fire and associated smoke. Regulation 4 of these Regulations amends this to also include where the risk of harm arises from exposure to fumes associated with a fire, an explosion or the collapse of the whole or part a building as a result of fire or an explosion.
Regulation 6 of the 2005 Regulations prescribes the method for calculating the seriousness of hazards to be expressed as a numerical score. Regulation 5 of these Regulations makes some minor changes to that method and simplifies Tables 1 and 2.
Regulation 7 of the 2005 Regulations prescribes hazard bands by reference to ranges of numerical scores. Regulation 6 of these Regulations replaces bands A to J, with three bands of hazard: High, Medium and Low. A hazard will be a category 1 hazard if its numerical score corresponds to the High band and a category 2 hazard if its numerical score corresponds to the Medium or Low band. The amendments made by regulation 7 of these Regulations are consequential on that change.
Schedule 1 to the 2005 Regulations prescribes various descriptions of hazard. Regulation 8 of these Regulations amalgamates some of those descriptions, clarifies that the “fire” hazard description covers exposure to fumes associated with fire and broadens the hazard descriptors for structural collapse and explosions so they are not limited to structural collapse of, or explosion at, the dwelling or HMO.
Schedule 2 to the 2005 Regulations describes four classes of harm and includes examples for each class. Regulation 9 of these Regulations renames Classes I, II, III and IV as Extreme, Severe, Serious and Moderate respectively. The amendments made by regulations 3 and 5(c) are consequential on this change.
Regulation 10 makes transitional provision relating to amendments made by regulations 3 to 9 of these Regulations and that those amendments only apply to an inspection under section 4 of the Housing Act 2004 commenced on or after the coming into force date.
A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/571/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/housing-health-and-safety-rating-system-england-amendment-regulations-2026/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.