Prohibition notices
Case reference FOI2026/00555
Received 15 May 2026
Published 1 July 2026
Request
Please provide information about fire safety prohibition notices issued by your fire and rescue service/fire authority under Article 31 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Please provide the data for each calendar year from 1 January 2021 to the date this request is processed.
For each year, please provide:
1. The total number of prohibition notices issued.
2. A breakdown of those prohibition notices by premises/building type, using the categories held by your authority. If possible, please include at least:
a. residential premises, including blocks of flats, HMOs, supported/sheltered housing and other residential accommodation;
b. commercial premises, including shops, offices, hospitality, industrial, leisure and other non-domestic premises;
c. mixed-use premises;
d. other/unknown.
3. The number of prohibition notices issued in relation to buildings or premises that were under construction, conversion, refurbishment, renovation or major building works at the time the notice was served.
Response
Please see our response to each of your requests in turn below:
Please provide the data for each calendar year from 1 January 2021 to the date this request is processed.
For each year, please provide:
1. The total number of prohibition notices issued.
2. A breakdown of those prohibition notices by premises/building type, using the categories held by your authority. If possible, please include at least:
a. residential premises, including blocks of flats, HMOs, supported/sheltered housing and other residential accommodation;
b. commercial premises, including shops, offices, hospitality, industrial, leisure and other non-domestic premises;
c. mixed-use premises;
d. other/unknown.
Detailed fire prevention and protection data is published yearly by the Home Office. The specific information you have requested for 1 and 2(a-d) above can be accessed using the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/699ed2506457311dafbbcc7a/FIRE1202.xlsx
Sheet FIRE1202a provides the total number of prohibition numbers served in column N. Please note, you can filter to LFB figures be selecting ‘Greater London’ in cell A3. Sheet FIRE1202b provides the total number of prohibition notices served in column U, broken down by premises type by financial year. Please note, you can filter to LFB figures be selecting ‘Greater London’ in cell A4, and change the year using cell A3.
3. The number of prohibition notices issued in relation to buildings or premises that were under construction, conversion, refurbishment, renovation or major building works at the time the notice was served.
LFB’s Prevention and Protection department have let me know that they are unable to run a report, from their system that can identify any prohibition notices (PNs) issued in relation to buildings or premises that were under construction, conversion, refurbishment, renovation or major building works at the time the notice was served. To obtain the information you have requested they would have to manually check the premises file, where a PN has been served and examine multiple documents (the PN itself would not be enough as it would just say (for example) what the serious defect was and what use LFB were prohibiting (so a shop under refurbishment/refit might have been found to still have company employees on site and to have a worker or three sleeping in the basement so we’d just have said it was a shop and prohibited sleeping).
As you will see from the published information I provided to you in response to request one, over 400 PNs have been issued by LFB since January 2021. To remain within the “appropriate limit” of £450 as defined the FOIA fee regulations, an individual in the Prevention and Protection department would have to manually retrieve each of the 400+ files (electronically), examine multiple documents for any record of the information you have requested and, then extract any relevant information located in less than three minutes per premises record, which would not be feasible.
I therefore confirm that the cost of providing the information you have requested is greater than the “appropriate limit” of £450 as defined the FOIA fee regulations. In setting this out in full this now serves as a formal ‘refusal notice’ for this part of your request based on section 12 of the FOI act. As you may be aware, if the cost exceeds the appropriate limit to comply with a request, a public authority is not obliged to comply with it. If you can further refine this part of your request then please let us know however, please do bear in the mind the manual nature of any search that may need to be carried out to obtain this information as detailed above.
Documents
This is London Fire Brigade's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.