Specified systems, SS1 to SS16

Where the list comes from

Specified systems are defined in Schedule 1 of the Building (Specified Systems, Change the Use, and Earthquake-prone Buildings) Regulations 2005. If a building has one, it needs a compliance schedule, and every system on that schedule needs certifying every year.

The wording below is quoted from the regulations.

The list

Schedule 1 defines the systems and stops at SS15. The sub-numbering under some of them — SS3/1, SS13/2 and so on — and SS16 itself come from MBIE’s Compliance Schedule Handbook rather than the regulations. That is what every council register actually uses, so it is set out here too.

SS1 — Automatic systems for fire suppression (for example, sprinkler systems).

SS2 — Automatic or manual emergency warning systems for fire or other dangers (other than a warning system for fire that is entirely within a household unit and serves only that unit).

SS3 — Electromagnetic or automatic doors or windows.

• SS3/1 Automatic doors
• SS3/2 Access controlled doors
• SS3/3 Interfaced fire or smoke doors and windows

SS4 — Emergency lighting systems.

SS5 — Escape route pressurisation systems.

SS6 — Riser mains for use by fire services.

SS7 — Automatic back-flow preventers connected to a potable water supply.

SS8 — Lifts, escalators, travelators, or other systems for moving people or goods within buildings.

• SS8/1 Passenger carrying lifts
• SS8/2 Service lifts
• SS8/3 Escalators and moving walks

SS9 — Mechanical ventilation or air conditioning systems.

SS10 — Building maintenance units providing access to exterior and interior walls of buildings.

SS11 — Laboratory fume cupboards.

SS12 — Audio loops or other assistive listening systems.

• SS12/1 Audio loops
• SS12/2 FM radio frequency and infrared beam transmission systems

SS13 — Smoke control systems.

• SS13/1 Mechanical smoke control
• SS13/2 Natural smoke control
• SS13/3 Smoke curtains

SS14 — Emergency power systems for, or signs relating to, a system or feature specified in any of clauses 1 to 13.

• SS14/1 Emergency power systems
• SS14/2 Signs

SS15 — Any or all of the following, so long as they form part of a building’s means of escape from fire, and so long as those means also contain any or all of the systems or features specified in clauses 1 to 6, 9, and 13:

• SS15/1 Systems for communicating spoken information intended to facilitate evacuation
• SS15/2 Final exits
• SS15/3 Fire separations
• SS15/4 Signs for communicating information intended to facilitate evacuation
• SS15/5 Smoke separations

SS16 — Cable cars.

The SS15 condition is worth understanding

SS15 is the one that is most often applied too broadly, and it can cost you money every year for as long as it stays wrong.

Those five items — evacuation voice systems, final exits, fire separations, evacuation signage, smoke separations — are conditional. They only become specified systems if both halves of the test are met:

1. they form part of the building’s means of escape from fire, and
2. those means of escape also contain one or more of SS1 to SS6, SS9, or SS13.

A small building with no sprinklers, no alarm system, no pressurisation, no mechanical ventilation and no smoke control does not meet the second limb. Its fire separations and final exits are therefore not specified systems, and should not be listed on its compliance schedule.

If they are listed, you are paying for an annual inspection and certification of something the regulations do not require. That is worth checking on any schedule you have inherited.

A schedule lists only what the building has

No building has all sixteen. Your compliance schedule lists the systems actually installed in your building, and each one carries its own performance standard and its own inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures.

If you cannot find your compliance schedule, start here.