Approved documents accompanying the Building Regulations in England and Wales make specific reference to the use of sprinklers (Regulations for Scotland and Northern Ireland differ slightly).
For life safety, new residential blocks over 30m high must be fitted with sprinklers to meet Approved Document B standards. Similarly an uncompartmented area in a shop or self storage building over 2000 square metres now requires sprinkler protection. There are corresponding regulations applying to large single storey buildings for industrial or storage use where the largest permitted unsprinklered compartment is 20,000 square metres.