Explainer: How to comply competently with the Building Safety Act

The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA), which received royal assent in April of that year, has been designed to make buildings safe for the people who use them. 

This wide-ranging reform of building safety legislation followed the independent review led by Dame Judith Hackitt after the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which claimed 72 lives. While the act covers England, some parts of it also apply in Wales and Scotland. 

The legislation is designed to fill a gap that Dame Judith identified in the Building Regulations 2010 and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. It aims to put occupiers at the heart of building safety by: 

• Defining roles and responsibilities more clearly 
• Emphasising the competent adherence to building regulations 
• Creating a so-called digitally stored 'golden thread' of information that enables compliance 

The act clarifies who is accountable for building safety throughout the life of a “higher-risk building” (HRB). It defines an HRB as an occupied building of at least seven storeys or 18m in height containing more than one residential unit and includes care homes and hospitals. 

Although the act focuses on the safe design, construction and management of HRBs, its aim is to change the construction industry’s culture by establishing a more effective regulatory and responsibility framework promoting competent professional practice wherever building safety is concerned. It will therefore affect all engineers. 

The Building Safety Act 2022 has brought with it many changes, but the main provisions it has introduced are below. 

 A new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to serve as the building control authority for HRBs. The BSR in England is part of the Health and Safety Executive. 

New statutory responsibilities for the main parties involved in the design, construction and management of buildings, not just HRBs. Roles covered include those of principal designer and principal contractor. Confusingly, these roles already existed – and continue to exist – in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM). The Building Safety Act has now created separate roles of principal designer and principal contractor for projects that fall under the act's remit. The duties are different, as they relate to building regulations, and these duty holders will have to demonstrate their competence to perform the BSA role as distinct from the CDM role, although both may be carried out by the same person if they are competent to do so. 

Tougher penalties for anyone who breaks the rules, particularly building owners who fail to “demonstrate that they have effective, proportionate measures in place to manage safety risks”. 

A three-stage gateway approach that applies to new builds, extensions and refurbishments involving buildings covered by the act. The main features of the three stages are: 

Gateway one – the submission of a fire statement as part of the planning application 

Gateway two – mandatory building regulation approval for the project before commencement. The information required to pass through this gateway includes: 

• Competency statements for the principal designer and contractor 

• A statement specifying the standards used in designing the building and explaining why the chosen approach is appropriate 

• Statements on how the building will be controlled during construction to ensure compliance 

Gateway three – a completion certificate 

A duty on the accountable person to provide and maintain a safety case report for the building. The report must identify the safety risks, explain how these have been assessed and show that all reasonable preventive steps are being taken. The accountable person is a new statutory role that applies to the person or organisation that owns the building. (It may also apply to the person or organisation responsible for maintaining common areas such as corridors.) Safety risks are defined in the act as those arising from any of the following factors: 

• The spread of fire 
• A structural failure 
• Any other prescribed matter, which could include things such as contamination and poisoning – from the spread of mould, for instance. 

Every engineering discipline involved in the design should be feeding into the safety case report. This could include highways, drainage, water supply and sanitation, as well as structural, building services and cladding. Anyone whose contribution might create a risk during construction or refurbishment must show that they have identified that risk and demonstrate how it’s being managed. 

The use of a golden thread of information. This must be created and maintained throughout the life of the building. The government’s Building Regulations Advisory Committee defines the golden thread as “both the information that allows you to understand a building and the steps needed to keep both the building and people safe, now and in the future”. 

At the heart of the Building Safety Act 2022 is its obligation on all people and organisations concerned with design and construction to be competent to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations 2010. This obligation has been enshrined in an amendment to the regulations so that it applies to every building – even the smallest residential alteration. 

In the case of HRBs, the accountable person must provide evidence that the key people involved in design and construction are competent in order to pass through gateway two. 

Competency is a crucial issue to have come out of the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, but there aren’t yet any industry-wide standards for proving competence. 

The ICE and the Institution of Structural Engineers plan to operate a joint competency register for members working as designers on HRBs. This will assess engineers against the new UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment Contextualised for Higher- Risk Buildings. Eligible members will be invited to apply this year. 

The register will apply only to engineers working on HRBs. The issue of how to show competence and so comply with the amended Building Regulations 2010 for all other buildings has yet to be resolved.