Scope of the new RSCIEI
Royal Decree 164/2025 was published on 10 April 2025 and entered into force on 10 May 2025. It replaces the regulation approved by Royal Decree 2267/2004, subject to transitional provisions. RSCIEI connects establishment classification, construction requirements and protective provision. It is not limited to fire-protection installations: it also addresses spread, evacuation and conditions of buildings and their industrial fire compartments or areas. The applicable framework therefore needs examination before selecting equipment alone.
New, existing or altered
New establishments follow the current regime. Existing ones do not require complete upgrading solely because the regulation changed, but specified current duties for operation, maintenance, inspection and response to fire apply. Extensions, alterations or changes of activity meeting the transitional conditions can trigger new requirements in the affected part. A change of ownership alone, without the specified activity change, does not automatically make an establishment equivalent to new construction.
Design must reflect actual use
Classification considers configuration, compartments or areas and intrinsic risk level. Design documentation cannot remain detached from stored quantities, activities or layout. Introducing another process may alter the conditions under which the workplace originally entered service. Before describing an alteration as minor, its effects on area, risk and consistency with the design need justification. That conclusion requires technical assessment rather than reliance on a commercial description of the work or its estimated cost.
Inspections and maintenance
The regulation establishes periodic inspections with specific treatment of pre-existing establishments and exceptions. A previous inspection still valid retains effect under the fifth transitional provision; the next date should not be informally recalculated while disregarding its report. Maintenance of protective systems and statutory inspection are different activities. Application must be coordinated with RIPCI and, where relevant, the Technical Building Code and other requirements affecting the establishment and its different uses.
Documentation worth reviewing
Collect the design and alterations, implementation date, licences, certificates, inspection reports and maintenance records. The ministry’s application guide, whose second version appeared in 2026, clarifies criteria but is non-binding. This article does not size compartments or select equipment. Its purpose is to identify the correct regime before commissioning technical justification or scheduling inspection, avoiding both unjustified wholesale upgrading demands and assumptions that an older establishment is exempt from current duties.
