News & opinion

Building Safety Act Frequently Asked Questions

05 November 2024

On 5th July 2021, the Building Safety Bill, first published in July 2020, was introduced to Parliament. This is a lengthy document and was subject to change as it worked its way through to gaining Royal Assent as expected in April 2022. The following information may be subject to change.

Following the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017, it became clear that there was a need for government to step in and change legislation for high rise buildings (HRBs) so that a tragedy like this never occurs again. It builds on the recommendations within Dame Judith Hackitts’ Independent Review of the Building Regulations and Fire Safety final report published in May 2018. RICS has been working closely with and advising government on the changes.

We expected the draft Bill, having already undergone pre-legislative scrutiny, to have quite a lengthy passage through the House of Commons and the House of Lords before being passed by Parliament. Royal Assent was achieved 28 April 2022, with an implementation date for some measures as late as 18 months – 2 years afterwards in 2024.

The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No.1, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2022 (Statutory Instrument no.561) were published in May 2022 setting out a timeline for implementation of some of the provisions of the Act this year.

The Act is the most comprehensive piece of legislation to hit the built environment in decades. It is divided into 6 Parts;

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: The Regulator and its functions

Part 3: Building Act 1984

Part 4: Higher-risk buildings

Part 5: Other provisions about safety standards, etc

Part 6: General

In addition there are 11 Schedules;

Schedule 1: Amendments of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974

Schedule 2: Authorised officers: investigatory powers

Schedule 3: Co-operation and information sharing

Schedule 4: Transfer of approved inspectors’ functions to registered building control approvers

Schedule 5: Minor and consequential amendments in connection with Part 3

Schedule 6: Appeals and other determinations

Schedule 7: Special measures

Schedule 8: Remediation costs under qualifying leases

Schedule 9: The New Homes Ombudsman Scheme

Schedule 10: Amendments in connection with the new homes ombudsman scheme

Schedule 11: Construction products regulations

See this link to the Act table of contents, with interactive links to each section.

Explanatory Notes have now been published, with interactive links to sections and pages, which will help you navigate through this lengthy Act. These notes also have;

Commencement

Financial implications of the Act

Related documents

And finally 3 Annexes;

Annex A – Territorial extent and application in the UK (subject to devolved nations take up). See attached pdf.

Annex B – Hansard References

Annex C – Glossary

The Welsh Government are committed to improving building safety to ensure another tragedy like Grenfell is avoided. Whilst there are differences in approach to rectification of cladding defects and building safety from England, the overall impact should be safer buildings. RICS has been and continues to work closely with the Welsh Govt on these issues. A written Ministerial Statement was published 4^th March 2024 here confirming a new Building Safety (Wales) Bill will be introduced, which will go significantly further than the BSA in England. All multi-occupied residential buildings in Wales which contain two or more residential units regardless of height are proposed to be in scope.

The Fire Safety Act 2021 was also implemented in Wales, by The Fire Safety Act 2021 (Commencement) (Wales) Regulations 2021, which came into effect on 1^st October 2021.

The Building Safety Act 2022 has not yet been implemented in full in Wales, and no new national regulator such as the BSR has been set up. The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 3, Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2023 were made on 18^th Aug 2023. More information on changes in Wales will be posted here for future reference. See this link to the Audit Wales report published August 2023 on building safety in Wales.

The EWS1 process applies equally to Wales as it does to England. Read the Ministerial / RICS statement published 21^st March 2023 here. The extended guidance applicable to Wales was published 15 December 2023 here.

The guidance document ‘Fire safety responsibilities Under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022’ published on the Welsh Government website is for those who have responsibilities for fire safety under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It covers the changes to the Order made by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022. These new requirements will come into force on 1 October 2023.

On 15 November 2023, the Welsh Ministers laid The Building Safety (Description of Higher-Risk Building) (Design and Construction Phase) (Wales) Regulations 2023. These Regulations define what constitutes a higher-risk building for the purposes of section 120I of the Building Act 1984. Part 3 of the Building Safety Act 2022, which inserted section 120I into the 1984 Act, makes provision for higher-risk buildings to be subject to an enhanced regulatory regime during the design and construction phase. These Regulations come into force on 1 January 2024.

On 5 December 2023, the Welsh Ministers laid The Building (Building Control Profession) (Registration, Sanctions and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2023. These Regulations prescribe periods for registration of a registered building inspector and registered building control approver, set out the sanctions for registered building control approvers and deal with appeals of a decision made by the Welsh Ministers, who are the regulatory authority in relation to Wales, under Part 2A of the Building Act 1984. These Regulations come into force on 1 January 2024.

Also, on 5 December 2023, the Welsh Ministers laid The Building Control Profession (Charges) (Wales) Regulations 2023. These Regulations make provision for the recovery of charges for and in connection with the performance of the Welsh Ministers’ functions under Part 2A of the Building Act 1984, which makes provision in relation to the regulation of the building control profession and oversight of those exercising building control functions.

Reminder that responses to the call for evidence and consultation on plans to amend the building regulations for Approved Document Part B (Fire Safety) are required by 9 January 2024. A copy of the consultation and impact statement can be found on the Welsh Government website here.

The Welsh Government has published a summary of responses and their subsequent response to the consultation; “New Build developments: delivering gigabit capable connections”. The consultation proposal was to amend building regulations guidance: part R (physical infrastructure for high-speed electronic communications networks. The report can be read here.

See also ‘How does the Act affect building control?’ for more information relating to Wales.

Registration for building control professionals in Wales opened on 31 January 2024. See the question ‘How does the Act affect building control?’ below for further information.

Building Control

The first phase of the new building control regime for Wales is complete. It has brought in regulation of the building control profession, which includes private building control approvers, building inspectors and local authorities exercising building control functions.

The Welsh Government have published a new Handbook on changes to building control during phase 1 of reform under the Building Safety Act 2022, in relation to: defining what higher-risk buildings for the design and construction phase will be in Wales; establishing a regulated profession for building inspectors and building control approvers; reforming the building control private sector; and restricting certain activities and functions such that they are only undertaken by suitably competent individuals.

Joint Inspection Team

The Joint Inspection Team for Building Safety in Wales is now operational and will soon undertake its first inspection.

The Team will bring additional capacity to inspections of multi-occupied residential buildings. They will work closely with Local Authorities and Fire and Rescue Services to undertake additional inspections of medium and high-rise buildings across Wales. A programme of inspections is currently under development.

The Joint Inspection Team will act in an advisory capacity – it will not have enforcement powers. It will, however, provide advice and make recommendations to existing enforcement authorities including real-time reporting on issues of significant concern, detailed reports to enforcement authorities, post-inspection meetings and reviews with the host Local Authority and relevant Fire and Rescue Service.

The team is multi-disciplinary, combining the skills and knowledge of building safety and fire safety professionals and consists of a Strategic Lead and four Principal Advisers covering:

Building Control
Environmental Health
Fire and Rescue
Fire Engineering

The Joint Inspection Team will also highlight the offer of Welsh Government-funded intrusive surveys, to encourage more expressions of interest to the Building Safety Fund from building owners/ managing agents.

For further information, please contact Dawood Haddadi, Head of the Joint Inspection Team, e-mail: dawood.haddadi@wlga.gov.uk

Leaseholder Legal Advisory Scheme

The Welsh Government is committed to address fire safety issues in medium and high-rise buildings in Wales (these are typically buildings over four storeys high). As part of the support being offered to leaseholders, or their representatives, The Leaseholder Legal Advisory Scheme launched in May 2024. This Scheme will provide legal advice specifically for fire safety related matters.

Developers that have signed up to the Welsh Government’s Contract are subject to a robust monitoring regime. If necessary, the Welsh Government will take formal action against these developers.

There may, however, be times where leaseholders, or responsible persons on behalf of leaseholders, need legal advice about their property as a direct result of fire safety issues. This is where the Leaseholder Legal Advisory Scheme can help.

The scheme is free and is designed to offer leaseholders specialist legal advice and help to resolve potential disputes. The scheme is administered by the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) and the first step to access this support is to contact them.

An advisor will review the circumstances, assess if legal support is appropriate, and if so, will advise on the next steps and how to take these forward. Where appropriate, LEASE will then act as a referral service to a dedicated legal services provider whose initial advice will be paid for by the Welsh Government.

If you feel you might be eligible for legal support and would like more information about the Scheme, please contact LEASE. You can also contact LEASE if you have any other leasehold related queries.

Remediation Progress Update 28 June 2024

The Welsh Building Safety Fund is focused on addressing fire safety issues in buildings of 11 metres and over in existing building stock.

They currently have 350 buildings in the Programme. Work has completed (subject to final sign off) on 65 buildings. Work has started on 104 buildings. Plans are in development subject to surveys and appointment of contractors for a further 107 buildings. We have been informed that 7 buildings do not require any fire safety works.

We are awaiting further updates on plans for the remaining 67 buildings. The reasons for this information not yet being available range from the buildings being low risk; issues in accessing the buildings and surveys having not yet been completed.

Since the announcement in November 2023 that there is a route to addressing fire safety issues in all residential buildings of 11 metres and over, progress has been made to:

Identify and meet with smaller developers who are not signed up to the developer contract (18 buildings)
Meet with larger developers to challenge and push the pace of progress, (140 buildings)
Identify orphan buildings without an identified developer, or where the developer has ceased trading (47 buildings).
Award the latest round of Social Sector Grants (145 buildings)

Responsible Persons of residential buildings of 11 metres or more are still able to submit an Expression of Interest to the Welsh Building Safety Fund if they have not yet done so. This is the first step to accessing support from the Welsh Government.

Further information about the Welsh Building Safety Fund can be found here: Welsh Building Safety Fund: expression of interest guidance | GOV.WALES

The Scottish Government are committed to improving building safety to ensure another tragedy like Grenfell is avoided. Whilst there are differences in ownership legislation and approach to rectification of cladding defects and building safety from England, the overall impact should be safer buildings. RICS has been and continues to work closely with the Scottish Govt on these issues.

The Building Safety Act 2022 does not generally apply in Scotland. For the only relevant parts refer to the Annex A – Territorial extent and application in the UK (subject to devolved nations take up).

Scottish Government are piloting a Compliance Plan and Compliance Plan Manager (CPM) role for HRBs 11m+. The new building works Completion Certificate can be submitted by either the CPM or the building owner in future. Further information is available here.

Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) is responsible for promoting and supporting the verifiers profession, and developing building standards in collaboration with the Scottish Government Building Standards Directorate across all 32 Scottish local authorities. There is no system of private building control approvers (RBCAs) unlike England.

The Scottish Building Standards Hub (SBSH) is responsible for a collaborative approach with Fife Council, LABSS and Scottish Government, formally launched on 24^th May 2024 after a pilot period. It seeks to support improved consistency, compliance and resilience across buildings in Scotland with a new Competency Assessment System (CAS) for verifiers. This will include Scottish Type Approval Scheme (STAS) for standard types of buildings including information papers.

Scottish Government are also developing independent assessment of competency accreditation and a register – for verifiers, for launch in 2026. Further information will follow.

A national methodology for competence is being developed; and an Enforcement Handbook has been published with new sanctions of fines and proposed custodial sentences for non-compliance for building standards offences. Changes are expected to be made in the next Parliamentary Session from 2026. This will include a 10-year enforcement period post completion for HRBs.

CQIC – Construction Quality Improvement Collaborative – launched Feb 2023, with adoption into Scottish Construction Accord.

CQIC have also launched the Construction Quality Improvement Charter Scotland – see this link.

See also the Cladding External Wall System (EWS) FAQs re the new Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

The Act gained Royal Assent on 21^st June 2024 - s.39 deals with when it comes into force:

Commencement

(1) This Part comes into force on the day after Royal Assent.

(2) The other provisions of this Act come into force on such day as the Scottish Ministers may by regulations appoint.

(3) Regulations under this section may amend subsection (4) of section 30 so that the text referring to the day on which the section comes into force instead specifies the date on which the section actually comes into force.

In addition, Scottish Government have published 21 June 2024 the final version of the SBA (Single Building Assessment) Specification;

Supporting documents - Cladding Remediation Programme: Single Building Assessment specification - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Single Building Assessment Specification (SBA) (www.gov.scot)

The Northern Ireland Executive are committed to improving building safety to ensure another tragedy like Grenfell is avoided. Whilst there are differences in ownership legislation and approach to rectification of cladding defects and building safety from England, the overall impact should be safer buildings. RICS has been and continues to work closely with the Department of Finance and is a member of the Expert Panel for the Building Safety Programme on these issues. See the Panel’s report Improving Safety in High Rise Residential Buildings in Northern Ireland.

The Building Safety Act 2022 does not generally apply in Northern Ireland. For the only relevant parts refer to the Annex A – Territorial extent and application in the UK (subject to devolved nations take up).

A written ministerial statement on 29 April 2024 updated the Northern Ireland Assembly on plans to bring forward legislation to address the disparity of legal protection to citizens affected by defective premises. The proposed legislation would extend the limitation period for actions taken in relation to defective or damaged buildings from six years to 15 years prospectively, and from six years to 30 years retrospectively. This will bring parity with England & Wales. Executive approval has been given for the development and introduction of a Defective Premises Bill, as well as approval for the accelerated passage procedure to be used. The Bill will be brought before the Assembly at the earliest opportunity.

The Act will create a clear, proportionate framework for the design, construction and management of safer buildings in England in the years to come (note the Act will not apply to Scotland and in limited parts to Wales, and Northern Ireland).

It will strengthen the construction products regulatory regime, with new requirements to make sure more products are safe, while paving the way for a National Regulator for Construction Products to oversee and enforce the rules.

A new developer tax, and a levy on developers, are also being introduced to ensure that the industry makes a contribution to the costs of correcting existing defects in buildings. To date, over 30 large developers have committed to a Government pledge to rectify defects in buildings they built going back 30 years. Not all developers have yet committed.

Responsible Actors Scheme

Regulations to implement the first phase of the Responsible Actors Scheme passed into law on 3 July 2023. Eligible developers who do not join the Scheme and comply with its conditions will have planning and building control prohibitions imposed on them.

Change made:

Updated with information on and links to the Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023, that passed into law on 3 July 2023.

A higher level of competency will be required for the regulated roles referred to in the Act of Principal Designer and Principal Contractor for residential high-rise buildings (HRBs). In addition, a new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will have responsibility and oversight of the whole building control profession for all buildings. This means all building control professionals (public sector and private sector), private building control approved inspector firms, building surveyors (in respect of design), building managers, quantity surveyors and project managers are all affected by the Act.

An Interim Industry Competence Committee has been established by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) ahead of the Act requirements for an Industry Competence Committee, and this interim committee will be ensuring that competence of all involved in the design, construction, and management of buildings is ramped up, including resident engagement and communications.

RICS is currently reviewing our pathways and competencies framework, comparing our requirements at the point of entry to the profession against the frameworks being created for the new regulated roles.

This follows making knowledge and understanding of fire safety a core competency requirement for chartered building surveyors in 2018, having already been a core competency requirement for chartered building control surveyors.

Any changes will be consulted on; however, we do anticipate that for those professionals who wish to work on HRBs, there will need to be an accreditation with demonstrable third-party validation as well as a public register. Training will also be developed to support our professionals through these changes.

The new role of Building Safety Manager (BSM) is now scrapped.

Building owners will be required to manage safety risks, with clear lines of responsibility for safety during design, construction, completion and occupation of high-rise buildings. The focus of the Act is on building structural safety and fire safety only, not other aspects.

It will also require a ‘golden thread of information’, with safety considered at every stage of a building’s lifetime, including during the earliest stage of the planning process (Gateway 1).

Building owners will need to demonstrate that they have effective, proportionate measures in place to manage safety risks, and will need to register their buildings. Any incidents will also need reporting to the Building Safety Regulator, which will be within HSE.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 will also be amended, to ensure tougher sanctions for non-compliance. Those who don’t meet their obligations may face criminal charges.

Residents in high-rise buildings will have more say in the management of their building in future. They will be able to raise building safety concerns directly to the owners and managers of buildings, who will have a duty to listen to them.

And if residents feel concerns are being ignored, they can raise them with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) directly.

All homeowners will also have more than twice the amount of time, from six years currently to thirty years, to claim compensation for sub-standard construction work as a result of amendments to the Defective Premises Act 1972, extending the time in accordance with the Limitation Act.

This will apply retrospectively – meaning that, properties built up to 30 years prior to this change coming into effect will be able to bring a claim for compensation for defective work.

However, the Act will not affect the current requirements for leaseholders to contribute towards the costs of remediation for combustible cladding and other building/fire safety defects where government funding is not available, for blocks below 11m. For buildings 18m+ / 7-stories or more, the Building Safety Fund is available for cladding remediation and the Government have committed again to the principle that leaseholders should not have to pay. For 11-18m buildings, a further £4Billion fund has been announced, and developers and product manufacturers are expected to pay. However, there is a cap of £10K outside London, and £15K within Greater London so leaseholders may have to still contribute, but only if all other options have been exhausted. In January 2024 Government published a guide for residents on the Building Safety Fund (BSF). The BSF provides funding to fix life safety fire risks associated with cladding in buildings over 18 metres high.

Read the BSF guide which explains the process

The leaseholder protection provisions of the Building Safety Act came into force 28 June 2022, at which point landlords will be financially liable, in law, for the remediation of historical building safety defects. Moreover, the ultimate owners of buildings can no longer hide behind shell companies: they must take responsibility for the dangerous buildings they own. Anyone who chooses to breach the statutory protections will be committing a criminal offence. Individuals involved in such criminal activity could face up to 10 years in prison, in addition to the consequences for their companies. Criminal exploitation of leaseholders will be treated as a matter of the utmost seriousness.

RICS is aware that there is a potential issue with leaseholders being granted lease extensions after 14 Feb 2022. These may not have the protections granted by the BSA. We recommend leaseholders seek legal advice and carefully consider how to preserve the BSA protections before proceeding with a lease variation or new lease. See also this advice by government, particularly s.26-s.28.

1) What are my building owner’s legal obligations?

2) Non cladding remediation costs: summary

3) Remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay

The HSE ‘Your Home, Your Safety’ residents campaign aims to help raise awareness about the new building safety regime and the rights and responsibilities of those living in high-rise buildings in England.

During the first phase of the campaign they have focused on encouraging residents to visit a dedicated campaign page and to sign-up to a future newsletter for further information.

We want as many residents as possible to be aware of the changes so please share 'Your home, Your Safety' with your networks if you can.

Visit ‘Your home, your safety’

You can also hear from HSE’s Chair Sarah Newton on the importance of putting residents at the heart of the HSE regulatory work.

Watch Sarah Newton's vlog

Those responsible for the safety of high-rise residential buildings in England have six months from April 2023 to register with the new Building Safety Regulator.

The Building Safety Regulator was established to protect high-rise residents from unsafe building practices in England in response to the Grenfell Tower fire.

Under the Building Safety Act, high-rise residential buildings which are 18 metres tall or higher, or at least seven storeys, with two or more residential units are defined as ‘higher-risk’.

Across England there are approximately 12,500 of these buildings and the new regulator will require all of them to be registered from April 2023, with a named person responsible for maintaining their safety.

A new campaign aimed at owners and managers of high-rise residential buildings will highlight their new legal duties. It will call on those responsible for the safety management of higher-risk buildings to prepare for a new wave of regulatory change to ensure that they are ready to step up and comply.

The registration process is a crucial stage in setting up the new building safety regime. Registering buildings in scope will be a legal requirement and owners and managers who fail to comply by October 2023 will be investigated and may face prosecution.

Applying to register a high-rise residential building? See this guidance for a Principal Accountable Person here.

Guidance on registering multiple structures

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has published guidance to help register buildings with complex structures.

If your building has two or more structures that are attached, you need to assess the 'independent section' criteria to see if they count as one building or should be registered separately.

Read the guidance on building definition and independent sections.

You can now self-serve changes to already submitted applications in the registration portal.

If you’ve already submitted an application to register a high-rise residential building (HRB) and need to amend the registration or key buildings information you have provided, you can now do this directly in the registration portal.

If your application has been submitted you have 14 days to inform BSR of changes to your registration information and 28 days for any changes to your key building information.

HSE guidance on applying to register a HRB has also been updated.

You can find new information on the process including:

the cost of a review
managing your information
how to change and add a user for the service

Visit the guidance

You can find other useful information on the registration process and using the service portal on the HSE BSR Building Safety campaign website.

What is the statutory definition of a ‘higher-risk building’?

A higher-risk building (HRB) is defined as a building in England that:

is at least 18m in height or has at least 7 storeys; and
contains at least 2 residential units.

A ‘residential unit’ is defined as a ‘dwelling’ or any other ‘unit of living accommodation’, and so has wide meaning.

The concept of ‘dwelling’ as applies under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is likely to apply (‘a building or part of a building occupied or intended to be occupied as a separate dwelling, together with any yard, garden, outhouses and appurtenances belonging to it or usually enjoyed with it’).

The addition of the alternative ‘unit of living accommodation’ gives the term a much wider meaning since it is likely to include (for example) student accommodation and other temporary accommodation where basic amenities are provided (although secure residential institutions, hotels, & military barracks / MOD living accommodation are not within scope).

The Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023 regulations indicate that, during the construction phase, the definition of higher-risk buildings is extended to include care homes and hospitals that meet the height requirement. Note that this extension does not apply to the occupation phase.

Stricter regulatory standards over higher-risk buildings

Higher-risk buildings are subject to numerous requirements, both during the construction and occupation phases:

Construction phase – There is a new building control regime, ‘Gateway’ requirements, and the imposition of various duties, culminating in obtaining a Completion Certificate from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) before occupation can occur.
Occupation phase – There is a new occupation regime, with a requirement for Accountable Persons and the Principal Accountable Person to fulfil various duties, including for the latter the duty to ensure that the building is registered with the BSR.

What is a ‘relevant building’?

New rights and remedies have also been introduced to protect leaseholders (amongst others) in relation to existing relevant residential buildings in England that:

are 11m+ in height or more than 5 storeys; and
contain at least 2 dwellings.

These include:

Remediation Orders – which can be sought against a landlord (usually the building owner) to require the remediation of specified relevant defects.
Remediation Contribution Orders – which require a specified body corporate or partnership to make payments to a specified person for the purpose of meeting costs incurred or to be incurred in remedying relevant defects. There is a very wide scope of who can be subject to these orders, with the courts even able to look beyond the corporate veil to parent and sibling entities, or to consider those who were associated with an insolvent landlord.
Schedule 8 Leaseholder Protections – which include that landlords cannot include the costs of cladding remediation works into the service charge.

Note that the application of these provisions is narrower since the wide-ranging alternative ‘unit of living accomm1odation’ is not relevant to the definition of buildings in scope for these protections.

The Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023

Guidance on the criteria for being a higher-risk building - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Criteria for determining whether a building is a higher-risk building during the occupation phase of the new higher-risk regime - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Criteria for determining whether a new building that is being designed and constructed is a "higher-risk building" - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Criteria for determining whether an existing building is a higher-risk building during building work - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Search HRB registration information online

You can now search for the details of a registered high-rise residential building online.

Using the new Government portal you can find a building’s registration information using its postcode.

This information includes:

name and address details
year built
height in metres
number of storeys
number of residential units
details of APs, PAP.

Access the HRB register portal

If you think a building should be registered but you are unable to find it on the portal you can contact the BSR here.

The Government has laid the Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2023 (applicable to England only) in Parliament. The regulations were subject to the affirmative procedure, meaning they were debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament before they became law. They are now in force with effect from 6th April 2023.

A copy of the regulations can be found here and the associated explanatory memorandum can be found here. A government response to the consultation on the regulations can be found here.

Read the HSE guidance published here.

The regulations set out the high-level information (the key building information) that the Principal Accountable Person (the person responsible for the repair of the structure and exterior of the building) will have to provide to the Building Safety Regulator. The regulations also clarify the parts of a higher-risk building for which Accountable Persons are responsible, when there are multiple Accountable Persons.

The key building information is high-level information that will enable the Building Safety Regulator to: analyse trends and risks in high-rise residential buildings; prioritise the assessment of the fire and structural safety in existing high-rise residential buildings and so effectively tranche the call-in and assessment of Safety Case Reports; identify similar buildings or systems if an issue emerges. The key building information is high level information and will not contain all the information that will be required in the golden thread.

Clarifying the parts of a building for which Accountable Persons are responsible is essential where there is more than one Accountable Person involved in the ownership of a higher-risk building. Residential building ownership is not always straight forward with multiple Accountable Persons having entered complex lease arrangements dictating the repairing responsibilities of different parts of the building. The regulations will enable those involved in the building safety management of a higher-risk building to identify which Accountable Person is responsible for a particular part of a building in relation to their responsibilities under the Building Safety Act.

Some residential properties primary use is residential flats but have private car parks and/or gyms/ swimming pools solely for the use of residents (not public use). These are secondary uses. HSE has confirmed that they only wish to know about the main largest secondary use and only one.

A question in the key information is “What type of insulation is used in the outside walls of (property name)?” – HSE have confirmed;

This is the insulation in the outside walls.
The options listed are the ones that BSR wants to know about, it is not an exhaustive list. If the exact option for your building is not included in the drop-down answers please select ‘not known’ where available, or apply the closest fit for your building from the available options.

A higher-risk building (HRB) is defined as a building in England that:

is at least 18m in height or has at least 7 storeys;

Sections of The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 also are applicable to buildings over 11m / 5 storeys or more, so it is important to know the height of a building.

Counting the number of storeys should be fairly easy, but remember not to include the basement if any part of the finished surface of the ceiling of the basement is below ground level – it is only the ground floor and all stories with accommodation above, not including plant rooms etc on/in the roof.

To measure the building to establish it’s height in metres, use the useful diagram D6 in p.145 of Approved Document B (Volume 1: Dwellings) to the Building Regulations – see this link. Remember to measure to the finished floor level of the uppermost habitable storey to the ground level on the lowest side of the building.

Regulations 5 and 6 of the ‘The Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023’ give the rules -

5.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the height of a building is to be measured from ground level to the top of the floor surface of the top storey of the building (ignoring any storey which is a roof-top machinery or roof-top plant area or consists exclusively of roof-top machinery or roof-top plant rooms).

(2) Where the top storey is not directly above the lowest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to the building, the height of the building is to be measured vertically from the lowest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to the building to the point which is a horizontal projection from the top of the floor surface of the top storey of the building (ignoring any storey which is a roof-top machinery or roof-top plant area or consists exclusively of roof-top machinery or roof-top plant rooms).

6.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), when determining the number of storeys a building has the following is to be ignored—

any storey which is below ground level;
any storey which is a roof-top machinery or roof-top plant area or consists exclusively of roof-top machinery or roof-top plant rooms; and
any storey consisting of a gallery with an internal floor area that is less than 50% of the internal floor area of the largest storey vertically above or below it which is not below ground level.

(2) Where a section is a building pursuant to regulation 4(2) or (4), any storey directly beneath the building which is not below ground level is to be counted in determining the number of storeys the building has.

(3) A storey is treated as below ground level if any part of the finished surface of the ceiling of the storey is below the ground level immediately adjacent to that part of the building.

DLUHC have since updated their guidance on GOV.UK (19/10/23) on how to measure height to determine if a building is a higher-risk building during the occupation phase, so follow this link and the guidance in the section ‘Counting storeys and measuring height’ which also contains useful diagrams.

NB the Approved Document B guidance is still applicable for building regulations purposes. Always determine the purpose of measuring height before selecting the appropriate guidance.

RICS has published a useful article on heights and the regulations in England, in the RICS Built Environment Journal online, see here.

Update: 04 October 2024

The First Tier Tribunal have published a decision relating to a Remediation Order in the case of Smoke House & Curing House, 18 Remus Rd, London E1 2NF here, which refers also to the challenges about measuring height in accordance with the correct legislation/guidance.

Update 18^th October 2024

Following publication of the FTT Smoke House case, MHCLG have issued a statement that ‘the sector and regulatory bodies should continue to refer to existing current Government guidance’ - which effectively means the top storey of a block which includes a garden terrace should NOT be counted as a storey (contrary to what the FTT found). We understand further consideration will be given to the FTT case, and it is worth noting the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 report recommended further consideration be given to the definition of an HRB.

The Act introduced several significant changes to the Defective Premises Act 1972, namely applying the DPA to extension or refurbishment works to existing residential properties and extending the limitation periods for breaches under the DPA from six years currently to thirty years retrospectively in respect of existing buildings and to 15 years prospectively for new building work.

The extended limitation period for claims will apply both prospectively and retrospectively. The changes allow for residential property owners to challenge sub-standard construction work that may have become apparent after the existing six-year limitation period. This means that work that had previously been discounted as being out of time, could now be resurrected and claims be brought as a result of the retrospective effect of the changes.

Since the Grenfell tragedy, a hardening PII market and insurers concern around the building regulations alongside exposure to fire safety, have resulted in the reduced availability of PII and significant increases in premium cost. The retrospective extension of the period of limitation will not be viewed positively by insurers, who have been concerned by changes to building regulations, and brings back into scope previously discounted risks which have not been priced into their reserves for claims or into the premiums of the risks that they are currently underwriting. At a time when insurers are assessing their construction exposure, the increased limitation period for which claims can be made may result in insurers assessing their involvement in the market.

As a result, the legislative change is likely to negatively impact the availability and cost of PII for RICS regulated firms in an already extremely challenging market. We will work with Government, insurers and other stakeholders to limit the impact of these measures as the legislation is implemented and ensure that adequate and affordable PII remains in place.

See the following related article reporting on the Court of Appeal case of URS Corporation v BDW Trading Ltd (2023) EWCA Civ 772 (July 2023).

The safety case report is a document that summarises your HRB safety case. It identifies your building's major fire and structural hazards. And it shows how you are managing the risks as far as you can.

The report should give the reader confidence that you:

have identified your building's major fire and structural risks
are managing and controlling them

These will be required to be prepared by the Accountable Person (see below) and will be called in by the BSR every 5 years, starting with 2024, and who will issue a Building Assessment Certificate. The certificate will not certify a building is safe. The intention will be to start with the riskier potentially less safe buildings. Details of what should be in a Safety Case Report are here. These reports will be available to residents on request.

HSE have published a further five guides on preparing for the new safety case regime and asks for your help in sharing this information. The guides are designed to help those in control of high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs) to meet their legal duties under the Building Safety Act, 2022. As part of the new regime, any ‘in scope’ building will need to prepare a safety case to demonstrate that the building is safe from the risks of fire spread or structural collapse. An ‘in scope’ means buildings that are at least 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys and at least two residential units.

Safety Cases Reports

Update 01/09/23 –

The Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023 give further detail regarding safety case reports, building safety risks, building assessment certificates, information etc.

Update 19/09/23 –

New guidance published Preparing a safety case report.

The HSE Building Safety Regulator (BSR) have published (Feb 2024) Safety Case Toolkit guidance for Accountable Persons to assist them in preparing a safety case report.

See this link for Keeping information about a higher-risk building: the golden thread

Also, see this letter from DLUHC and the BSR 17 April 2024

The Institution of Structural Engineers have published guidance on preparing safety cases 26^th April 2024.

Assessing higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act: a compendium of structural typologies

In April 2024 the BSR started directing PAPs to apply for their Building Assessment Certificate (BAC).

The length of time between registering your building and being told to apply for a BAC depends on the building information you supplied at registration.

The buildings currently prioritised by the BSR for a BAC are those which meet at least one of the following criteria:

over 30 metres to 49.99 metres high with more than 217 residential units
over 50 metres high with more than 11 residential units
clad with combustible aluminium composite material (ACM)
large panel systems built between 1956 and 1973 with a gas supply, and it is unclear if reinforcement work has been carried out.

The following is the BSR proposed order for organising remaining buildings for a BAC:

30 metres to 49.99 metres high with between 11 to 216 residential units, or 18 metres to 29.99 metres high with more than 378 residential units
18 metres to 29.99 metres high with between 52 to 377 residential units
18 metres to 29.99 metres high with between 25 to 51 residential units
at least 18 metres high with between 2 to 24 residential units.

Your building’s Safety Case Report and other documents should be in place now and you must keep the building information held by the Building Safety Regulator up to date.

Please check what you provided when registering your building and take action to find out any incomplete fire and structural information.

When the BSR tells you to apply for a BAC you will have 28 days to provide the required information. You only need to apply when they contact you.

Read the BSR guidance on preparing a building assessment certificate application.

Find out how to apply for a building assessment certificate.

The policy intent behind Planning Gateway One (PGO) was introduced into Planning Practice Guidance by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in June 2021. ‘The changes are intended to help ensure that applicants and decision-makers consider planning issues relevant to fire safety, bringing forward thinking on fire safety matters as they relate to land use planning to the earliest possible stage in the development process and result in better schemes which fully integrate thinking on fire safety’.

The purpose therefore is to ensure that fire safety is thought about at the earliest stage possible and not end up being overlooked at planning permission stage and baked in to any development when it could then prove problematic trying to change the design at a later stage. A development must pass PGO to progress to Gateway 2 (before building work starts).

It only applies currently to residential HRBs and educational accommodation buildings.

Further information is available on the Planning Portal here.

Gateway 2 is the detailed application process check point for the detailed design for HRBs. No work can commence until, the detailed design has been signed off by the BSR when the project involves:

construction of a new higher-risk building
work on an existing higher-risk building, including work that causes the building to stop being a higher-risk building
work on an existing building that will make it a higher-risk building

A higher-risk building is a building that has at least:

7 storeys or is at least 18 metres high
2 residential units or is a hospital or a care home

See this link Design and building work: meeting building requirements published by the HSE updated 4th March 2024.

The Accountable Person (AP) and Principal Accountable Person (PAP) is a new role (distinguished from the Responsible Person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005) for residential higher-risk buildings (HRBs). This will be the organisation or person who owns or has responsibility for the building. It may also be an organisation or person who is responsible for maintaining the common parts of a building, for example corridors or lobbies.

The AP/PAP will usually be an organisation or business but could also be an individual.

The AP/PAP will have a duty to take all reasonable steps to:

prevent a building safety risk happening, with building safety risk defined as ‘spread of fire and/or structural failure’
reduce the seriousness of an incident if one happens.

Guides for APs and PAPs have been published by the HSE, to help you understand how to assess and manage building safety risks. They are meant for non-specialists to understand their responsibilities under the BSA. They can be found here.

Further information can also be found here.

BSR Charging Scheme - 1 October 2023;

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) Charging Scheme 1 October was published on 21 September 2023 in anticipation of it coming into force on 1 October 2023.

BSR charges set out in the Charging Scheme, which is made under DLUHC’s Building Safety (Regulator’s Charges) Regulations 2023 published on 5 September 2023 and come into force on 1 October 2023.

The Building (Registered Building Control Approvers etc.) (England) Regulations 2024

These Regulations consolidate and replace the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010, following amendments made to the Building Act 1984 by the Building Safety Act 2022 (the 2022 Act). See also these Regulations which make miscellaneous corrections to the above. They make provision for the implementation of a new regime for registered building control approvers (RBCAs), including provisions on the independence and functions of RBCAs, as well as changes to notices and certificates, including the rejection of initial notices. They also: amend existing forms to support the practical operation of changes introduced by the 2022 Act; set out new provisions on the transfer of building projects to local authorities and introduce the new initial notices process; allow for building projects to be transferred from one RBCA to another; introduce a provision to enable local authorities to have the ability to seek information from an RBCA where this has ceased to supervise a building project, including requiring all records of supervision related to the building work to be made available; and prescribe the cases where the Building Safety Regulator must notify each local authority in relation to RBCA disciplinary matters.

Also defines what is an FSO building under regulation 9: “FSO building” is a building or any part of it to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies, or will apply after the completion of building work;

In Force - 6 April 2024

Building Control Profession (Charges) (Wales) Regulations 2023

These Regulations make provision for the recovery of charges for and in connection with the performance of the Welsh Ministers' functions under the Building Act 1984 Part 2A, which makes provision in relation to the regulation of the building control profession and oversight of those exercising building control functions. In force from 1 January 2024.

Building (Building Control Profession) (Registration, Sanctions and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2023

These Regulations prescribe periods for registration of a registered building inspector and registered building control approver, set out the sanctions for registered building control approvers and deal with appeals of a decision made by the Welsh Ministers, who are the regulatory authority in relation to Wales, under the Building Act 1984 Part 2A. In force from 1 January 2024.

Regulation of the Building Control Profession in Wales update

Registration for building control professionals in Wales opened on 31 January 2024.

Individuals and organisations who wish to apply to become Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs) or Registered Building Control Authorities (RBCAs) under the new regime, will now have the option to select England and Wales.

The services for both registration processes have been updated and can be found here:

BSR will follow up directly with RBIs who have already applied to register in England and who indicated at the time that they would also wish to register in Wales.

However, if you originally asked to register for England only but would now like to register for Wales as well, please contact HSE.

There will be no additional charge for registering in Wales as well as England.

The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No.4, Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/207)

These Regulations contain commencement, transitional and saving provisions made under the Building Safety Act 2022, bringing into force various provisions of the 2022 Act on 6 April 2024 in Wales.

Regulation 2 brings into force certain provisions of Part 3 of, and Schedules 4, 5 and 6 to, the 2022 Act on 6 April 2024. These provisions relate to the new regulatory regime for the building control profession in Wales.

Regulation 3 makes a transitional provision to provide that an AI (Approved Inspector), who becomes a RBCA (Registered Building Control Approver) before 6 April 2024, may continue overseeing higher-risk building work on or after 6 April 2024.

Regulation 4 contains a transitional provision which provides that an AI who does not become a RBCA must not oversee higher-risk building work on or after 6 April 2024. This regulation does, however, provide that an AI may continue to oversee building work that is not higher-risk building work, for a limited time.

Regulation 12 makes a transitional provision to disregard the different classes of building inspector on the register and allows a person to continue working on buildings, including higher-risk buildings, until 1 October 2024. This regulation only applies where a person has registered as a building inspector and is in the process of having their competence assessed, or has successfully had their competence assessed, at the required level appropriate to the work they intend to carry out.

Building (Restricted Activities and Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/238 (W. 48))

These Regulations prescribe the activities and functions of building control authorities and registered building control approvers which are restricted under the Building Act 1984 ss 46A and 54B.

In Force: 6 April 2024

Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/244 (W.49))

These Regulations amend the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010.

In Force: 6 April 2024

Part 2 of these Regulations amends the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/2215) (“the 2010 Regulations”) to implement Part 3 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (“the 2022 Act”). Part 3 of the 2022 Act amends the Building Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”) and defines the scope and provisions for the regime during the design and construction phase for higher-risk buildings. It also provides for the registration of building inspectors and building control approvers to better regulate and improve competence levels in the building control sector.

https://www.gov.wales/strategic-context-regulatory-framework-wales-html - updated 4th April 2024

https://www.gov.wales/building-inspector-competence-framework-bicof-wales-2024 - published 8^th April 2024

https://www.gov.wales/professional-conduct-rules-registered-building-control-approvers-wales-2024 – last updated 5^th April 2024

Other guides and list of resources: https://www.gov.wales/building-control-profession-standards-codes-and-rules

The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 5 and Consequential Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2024 (2024/447)

These Regulations amend the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 in consequence of the Building Safety Act 2022 Pt 3 ('the 2022 Act'). They also commence s.49(1) and (2) of the 2022 Act.

Part 3 of the 2022 Act amends the Building Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”) and defines the scope and provisions for the regime during the design and construction phase for higher-risk buildings. It also provides for the registration of building inspectors and building control approvers to better regulate and improve competence levels in the building control sector.

Regulation 3 of these Regulations amends specific provisions of the Approved Inspectors Regulations to amend references to “approved inspector” to “approver” so that they will continue to apply to registered building control approvers. The term “approver” is defined in regulation 2 of the Approved Inspectors Regulations as being a “registered building control approver”.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2024/447/pdfs/wsi_20240447_mi.pdf

Registers of building control inspectors and building control approvers are now available;

England only -

Find a registered building inspector in England

Wales only -

Find a registered building inspector in Wales

Find a registered building control approver in Wales

UPDATE re AIS SURVEYORS LTD trading as AIS CHARTERED SURVEYORS

RICS has been made aware that AIS SURVEYORS LTD has gone into liquidation, and the BSR have issued a suspension notice.

On 10 May 2024, LABC circulated advice concerning rumours about AIS going out of business and what this might mean for LA teams. The following is what LABC have issued to all their local authority (LA) members on 29^th May;

“Consequently, LABC has been in discussions with the BSR about the next steps regarding the work that AIS had in progress, both HRB and non-HRB alike. From those discussions LABC understands that all live AIS Initial Notices appear to be contained to England only and that AIS was not registered as an RBCA in Wales. As a result, this message is intended for LAs in England only and has been circulated to members in LABC Cymru for information.

If any members in Wales identify a live (not having had a Final Certificate) AIS Initial Notice, please can you bring this to LABCs attention and we will ensure that the BSR is informed.

On 22 May the BSR posted an update on the AIS entry in their RBCA register (England), which says:

“The Registered Building Control Approver is issued with an order of interim suspension under Section 58V (2) of the Building Act 1984 and is unable to carry out any building control functions. The suspension takes effect immediately for a period of 3 months until 16 August 2024. All Initial Notices in force must be cancelled by the Duty Holder by notifying the relevant local authority.”

LABC understands that the BSR is likely to issue a message to LAs in England concerning the AIS situation.

We would point out that, whilst LAs have the power to cancel Initial Notices (INs) where certain BSR sanctions are in place, Dutyholders – the person carrying out the work and named on any live AIS Initial Notices (those not the subject of a Final Certificate) – should take responsibility to cancel their notices in the first instance.

Where the person carrying out the work does not cancel or has not cancelled their IN then they are likely to be committing an offence and they could be prosecuted by the LA (see s52(4) BA84).

Where the person carrying out the work does not cancel the IN then the LA must commence procedures to do so instead. The process involved – whether the work is HRB or non-HRB – is as follows:

LAs should inspect their Initial Notice register for any records of INs that have been given by and not yet had a Cancellation Notice or Final Certificate from AIS or a Cancellation Notice from the person carrying out the work and named on the AIS Initial Notice.

We recommend that LAs allow a further two days, from the date of this advice note, to allow the person carrying out the work the opportunity to cancel their IN. If after this period of time the LA has not received a Cancellation Notice, it must begin the process of cancellation itself.
The LA must issue a notice of proposed cancellation of the Initial Notice to both AIS and the person carrying the work using Form 12 in Schedule 1 of the RBCA Regs 2024. The ground for giving this (pre-cancellation) notice, in this case, is because of the sanction by the BSR under s52(5A) and the condition given in s52(5B)(b) of the BA84, that is to say the registered building control approver is given an order under section 58V (interim suspension for suspected serious contravention).

LABC recommends that the notice is still sent to the AIS email address simply for the sake of completeness. LAs should ensure that they obtain a delivery receipt from the LAs email system once the notice has been sent – this will provide an audit trail should there be any challenge by representatives of AIS or the person carrying out the work, that the notice was never sent/received.
On the expiry of seven days, if the IN has still not been cancelled by the person carrying out the work, the LA should issue a cancellation notice using Form 11 in Schedule 1 of the RBCA Regs 2024. The ground for the cancellation is the same as that for 2. above.
Once the cancellation notice has been given by the LA, the LA can consider whether it wishes to investigate an offence by the person carrying out the work under s52(4) of the BA84 for not having cancelled the IN.
If the cancellation notice relates to an IN for HRB work or work to an existing HRB then a copy of the notice should be sent to the BSR via building-control.applications@hse.gov.uk and the person carrying out the work should be informed that they should stop all work on site until they have submitted an application to the BSR and had it in writing from the BSR that the application has been accepted (not approved). This is the process set out in The HRB Procedures Regulations 2023 – Schedule 3 paragraphs 11 and 5(4) to 5(9) incl.

Regardless of whether the site is recorded as sufficiently progressed, HRB type work cannot revert to LAs and must transfer to the BSR who is the Building Control Authority for HRBs. LAs no longer have any Building Regulations jurisdiction over HRB type work. However, individual LA RBIs may be appointed onto BSR MDTs to assist with the regulation of the project moving forward.

We would also remind members that once an Initial Notice for HRB work or work to an existing HRB is cancelled – either by the person carrying out the work or the LA – it cannot transfer to a new RBCA and must, in all cases, transfer to the BSR only.

For non-HRB work, the LA must wait a further seven days before considering the work as having reverted back to the LA. This is to allow the person carrying out the work time to appoint a new RBCA and give a ‘New Initial Notice’ for all the work to be assessed by that RBCA and to allow them to give a Transfer Certificate and Report in accordance with s53B BA84 and Part 5 of the RBCA Regs 2024.

Where the person carrying out the work indicates that they wish to revert all the work back to the LA and do not intend to appoint a new RBCA then you can follow the normal procedures employed by your LA for Reversion or Regularisation – depending on how the LAs internal processes record such events – and the seven day period of grace mentioned in 6. above can be ignored. See Part 4 of the RBCA Regs 2024.

LABC understands that any AIS plan or inspection records might not be available in respect of individual projects from the AIS winding-up process and LAs will need to discuss this with the person carrying out the work as opening-up work might be necessary in some cases.

Where the person carrying out the work cancels their Initial Notice using Form 10 of Schedule 1 of the RBCA Regs and a New Initial Notice is then given to the LA in respect of non-HRB type work, which will signify to the LA that there is to be a change of RBCA, then LAs should employ the following:

Section 53(8)(a) of the BA84 prescribes that a New Initial Notice must be given by a new RBCA within seven days of the date of the cancellation notice given to/by the LA.
Once the New Initial Notice has been accepted, LAs will need to wait 21 days for the new RBCA to provide a Transfer Certificate and Transfer Report. This certificate/report is a form of certification from the new RBCA that informs the LA that the RBCA has determined that all the “unfinished work” (all of the work to which the original initial notice related, except for any work in respect of which a final certificate was accepted by the local authority), complies with the requirements of the Building Regulations.
A Transfer Certificate from the new RBCA should include all the information prescribed in RBCA Regulation 25 and should also be accompanied by a Transfer Report, which should show how the RBCA determined how the “unfinished work” complies with the requirements of the Building Regulations as set out in RBCA Reg 25(b) and section 53B(6) of the BA84.
Where any of the grounds that are prescribed in Schedule 5 of the RBCA Regulations exist then the LA should reject the Transfer Certificate/Report.
The LA has 21 days in which to reject a Transfer Certificate/Report as stated in section 53C(2) and (6) of the BA84.
The LA can, by notice, request that the RBCA provides the LA with any additional information thought necessary to allow the LA to accept the Transfer Certificate/Report as set out in section 53C(4) of the BA84.
Where the RBCA does not give the LA a Transfer Certificate and Transfer Report, or the LA rejects the Transfer Certificate and Transfer Report, within the 21 day relevant period, then the LA must cancel the New Initial Notice using Form 16 in Schedule 1 of the RBCA Regulations 2024.

As mentioned in bullet point #5 above, LAs must not accept any New Initial Notices or Transfer Certificates/Reports for HRB work or work to an existing HRB. In cases where an RBCA attempts to give a New Initial Notice for HRB type work the LA must give a ‘Notice of Invalid Notice or Certificate’ in accordance with RBCA Regulation 7 by using Form 6 in Schedule 1 of the RBCA Regulations 2024.

Update 5^th July 2024;

RICS has seen a letter from the BSR confirming that in England anyone registered at Class 1 and awaiting the result of their assessment from either the BSCF, CABE or TTD can continue to work on restricted activities unsupervised until such time as their result is received; whereupon if they have failed their assessment they must continue to be supervised. Each individual has been written to by the BSR via the scheme providers. This only applies in England.

Any Initial Notice (IN) received from an RBCA must be accompanied by the letter each individual has received via the BSR to state their current status, or the IN must be rejected as follows;

Schedule 2 of The Building (Registered Building Control Approvers etc.) (England) Regulations 2024 (legislation.gov.uk), includes the following as grounds for rejecting an initial notice (IN):

The person specified in the notice as the registered building inspector who gave advice in relation to that notice—

(a)was not a registered building inspector on the date the notice was submitted; or

(b)was a registered building inspector on that date but their registration did not include all the work described in the notice.

If the RBI named on the IN is part of this limited cohort, the Local Authority will need evidence to confirm this to accept the IN, as the RBI will continue to show on the register as Class 1.

We hope you find this to be of some assistance, if you require any further information please contact technical@labc.co.uk

Wales - Update 10^th July 2024;

As a reminder, the BSR’s only responsibility in Wales is the registration of RBIs and RBCAs. The local authorities will be the regulator for all HRBs in Wales and all other building works.

The definition of HRBs in Wales is slightly different from England – see this link to The Building Safety (Description of Higher-Risk Building) (Design and Construction Phase) (Wales) Regulations 2023, in force 01 Jan 2024

BICoF (Wales) 2024

Code of Conduct for RBIs Wales 2024

Professional Conduct Rules for RBCAs Wales 2024

Operational Standards Rules (OSRs) Wales 2024

Phase 2 implementation of changes in Wales, a planned consultation will take place Autumn 2024. Phase 2 will introduce the new regimes for dutyholders, new Gateway process and Golden Thread.

Phase 3 will be Autumn 2025 – Autumn 2026, including tidying up remaining requirements from the Act, fees and charges review.

Building Regulations in Wales technical updates coming;

Part B – 2 mths consultation response to be published Q3 2024, not yet known when will come into effect

Part L – some point in 2025

Part R - not yet known, possibly Q4 2024 or early 2025

Part S – not yet known, possibly Q4 2024 or early 2025

For any queries, please contact enquiries.brconstruction@gov.wales

In force: 6th Aug 2024 - The Building Safety Act 2022 (Amendment Notices Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/850) came into effect. These Regulations make transitional provision in relation to the coming into force of the new building control regime for higher-risk buildings established by the BSA. Under the new regime, Registered Building Control Approvers (RBCAs) are unable to supervise higher-risk building work except in transitional cases where the initial notice was submitted before 1st October 2023 and the work was sufficiently progressed by 6th April 2024. These regulations ensure that amendment notices can be made in those transitional cases.

Update 19^th August 2024 re PWC Building Control Services Ltd (PWC)

RICS is aware that PWC have also gone into liquidation. PWC applied to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to be put on the Building Control Approvers Register on the 1st February 2024. Unfortunately, the BSR advised on the 1st August 2024 that their application had failed, and therefore as PWC has not been put on the Register it cannot provide any building control restricted functions.

PWC will be issuing Initial Notice Cancellations for all projects. The cancellations will be sent to the relevant Local Authority and a copy of this will also be sent to the applicant by email or letter. These cancellations notices will be issued between now and the 28th August 2024. These schemes now revert to the respective LA, or BSR for HRBs, with a new fee.

Guidance has been published about how local authorities, registered building control approvers (RBCAs), and persons carrying out building work in England may act regarding the cancellation of Initial Notices in different circumstances, where building work might revert to a local authority or where another RBCA may be appointed by the person carrying out the work, after the Initial Notice of the original RBCA has been cancelled.

Where it appears to a RBCA that some or all of the work described in an Initial Notice has become higher-risk building (HRB) work, section 52A(1) of the Building Act 1984 sets out that a cancellation notice should be issued by the RBCA and the relevant prescribed form given to the relevant local authority concerned and the person carrying out or intending to carry out the work. The prescribed form is Form 13 in Schedule 1 to the Building (Registered Building Control Approvers etc.) (England) Regulations 2024. A copy of the cancellation notice must be given to the Building Safety Regulator by the RBCA as soon as is reasonably practicable.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/building-control-practice-guidance-cancellation-notices-transfers-and-reversions

As stated above, the BSA introduces new duties and responsibilities for clients, designers and contractors in addition and separate to those which already exist under CDM2015.

Somewhat confusingly, Government have introduced the terms ‘Principal Designer’, ‘Designer’, ‘Principal Contractor’ and ‘Contractor’ in the BSA which are not the same as under CDM2015.

These new roles are now part of the Building Regulations (Part 2A) in England with effect from 01 October 2023 for all work subject to building control. This places emphasis on the designer and contractor to ensure compliance with the building regulations and not the building control body as a route to compliance. Notices and procedures have changed, and you need to be fully familiar with the new roles and remember that they are separate to those under CDM but which have similar titles.

The RIBA with whom RICS collaborates has written an excellent article on this, which is available here for further information.

Guidance has now been published on GOV.UK relating to the duties and competence requirements for building regulations that clients, designers and contractors must now meet. See this link. Also Design and construction of higher-risk buildings.

RICS intends to bring forward a training programme in Q4 2024 for Principal Designers which will include knowledge checks and competence validation.

In 2021, the UK Government announced that it would introduce a Building Safety Levy which would apply as a tax on any new development in England considered as “residential”. The revenues from the Levy – expected to be around £3 billion over a 10-year period - will be used to fund work to repair buildings across England with historical building safety defects.

Section 58 of the Building Safety Act 2022 provides the primary legislative framework for the Levy, and regulations will be made in due course to provide for how it will work in practice. A summary of what the UK Government intends is set out in the box below. Further detail on how the UK Levy is intended to operate can be found on the UK Government website here, and is subject to change until it comes into force.

Overview of England Building Safety Levy;

It is intended that the levy will be collected by local authorities.
Levy rates will vary by local authority boundary in England to take account of different house values.
It is proposed there will be a differential levy rate for new build on ‘brownfield’ land.
There are a number of proposed exemptions to the levy including affordable housing ( a full list is available on GOV.UK).
It is proposed the levy will be charged on floorspace of developments rather than per unit.
The UK Government propose to exclude small developments (under 10 units) as a means of protecting small businesses.
There is no intention to charge the levy on owners/occupiers who wish to improve their property.

Scotland are seeking devolved powers to introduce their own Scottish Building Safety Levy.

The New Home Ombudsman Scheme (NHOS) is an independent redress scheme. Any new build buyers who have issues with their new home or developer who are not happy with the quality of their home, or the service provided by the Registered Developer will be able to submit a case to the NHOS if their developer doesn’t deal with the complaint effectively.

All developers will need to register with the NHOS and remain members of the scheme.

All RICS professionals who work on new build residential property should be aware of the NHOS and be aware that they may need to submit evidence as part of a dispute brought against the developer they’re working for.

Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) makes a number of amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) to improve fire safety in all buildings regulated by the FSO. The changes, which come into force on 1 October 2023, include:

a new legal requirement for all Responsible Persons to record their fire risk assessment in full (previously only the significant findings needed to be recorded and only in specific circumstances);
a new legal requirement for all Responsible Persons to record the identity of the individual (their name and/or if applicable, their organisation) engaged by them to undertake and/or review a fire risk assessment;
a new legal requirement for all Responsible Persons to record their fire safety arrangements (demonstrating how fire safety is managed in their premises);
a new legal requirement for all Responsible Persons to record (and as necessary update) their contact information, including a UK based address, and share this with other Responsible Persons and residents of multi-occupied residential premises where applicable;
a new legal requirement for all Responsible Persons to take reasonably practicable steps to ascertain the existence of other Responsible Persons and, where applicable, Accountable Persons (a new legal entity made under the Building Safety Act 2022 in the case of higher-risk residential buildings) who share or have duties in respect of the same premises, and to identify themselves to said persons;
a new legal requirement for the departing Responsible Person to share all ‘relevant fire safety information’ with the incoming Responsible Person;
a new legal requirement for all Responsible Persons in a building containing two or more sets of domestic premises to provide residents with relevant fire safety information in a format that is easily understood by the residents;
an increase in the level of fine that can be issued for offences in relation to the intentionally deceptive impersonation of a fire inspector, failure to comply (without reasonable excuse) with specific requirements imposed by a fire inspector (such as by not providing a copy of the fire risk assessment when requested), and failure to comply with requirements relating to the installation of luminous tube signs, to the maximum possible, bringing them into line with all other offences under the FSO, and;
a new legal provision that in court proceedings for alleged breaches of the Fire Safety Order, compliance with or deviation from guidance issued under Article 50 may be relied upon as tending to establish whether or not there was a breach of the Fire Safety Order.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/check-your-fire-safety-responsibilities-under-section-156-of-the-building-safety-act-2022

S.156(4) is not at this stage being commenced (duty on RPs to appoint a competent fire risk assessor).

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, is divided into a number of Parts, and in particular Part 8 contains amendments to Part 5 of the BSA including repeal of S.125. Most of these changes affect the application of cost recovery and remediation orders and remediation contribution orders for defects. It also deals with notifications by insolvency practitioners about Accountable Persons, and recovery of legal fees through service charges.

The measures come into force automatically on 24 July 2024, see this link for further information.

Update 1^st November 2024

Three further measures came into force on 31 October 2024 via commencement regulations and made the following changes:

Relevant steps

Section 114, in conjunction with sections 115 and 116, of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 clarifies that in addition to remediation works, ‘relevant steps’ or ‘interim measures’ towards remediation can be included in Remediation Orders (ROs) and Remediation Contribution Orders (RCOs) under sections 123-124 of the Building Safety Act. ‘Relevant steps’ can include ‘Waking Watch’ fire safety patrols or ‘Simultaneous Evacuation Alarms’, or similar provisions. This clarification means that relevant landlords will be expected to either implement or pay the costs of relevant steps required to make buildings safe. Landlords may pass on costs for non-cladding defects to qualifying leaseholders via service charges, up to the relevant cap for remediation costs under the Leaseholder Protections. This is dependent on the lease value.

Remediation Orders

Section 115 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 clarifies that the First-tier Tribunal has the power to use a Remediation Order to require a landlord of an 11m+ building to take relevant steps in remedying a relevant defect, as defined in section 120 of the Building Safety Act. This amendment also clarifies the scope and enforceability of a direction issued by the First-tier Tribunal in relation to an expert report to establish the extent of the defects (or potential defect) and works required.

Remediation Contribution Orders

Section 116 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 makes it clear that a Remediation Contribution Order, under section 124 of the Building Safety Act, can include: (i) costs incurred in taking relevant steps toward remediation, (ii) costs related to obtaining an expert report (as set out in the amendment above), and (iii) associated costs of alternative accommodation when residents are decanted from relevant buildings on building safety grounds. This sections also provides that local authorities can apply to the Court to recover their costs if they pay to rehouse residents in these circumstances.

For more information, please consult the relevant sections in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

All building owners (Principal Accountable Persons) will need to register a residential HRB 18m or more / 7 stories or more, with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), by 1st October 2023 or face criminal prosecution. There are approximately 12,500 such buildings across England.

The BSR will begin assessing Building Assessment Certificate applications in April 2024.

All building control professionals will need to register with the BSR by 1st April 2024 - the register will open in October 2023.

S.156 of the BSA comes into force 1st October 2023. This makes a number of amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. S.156(4) is not at this stage being commenced (duty on RPs to appoint a competent fire risk assessor).

Introduction to registering high-rise residential buildings
Applying to register a high-rise residential building
Register a high-rise residential building
Giving BSR structure and fire safety information (key building information)
Accountable Persons and Principal Accountable Persons
Building Safety Regulator
Safety cases and safety case reports
The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023   
The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023
The Building (Approved Inspectors etc. and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023
The Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023  
The Building Safety Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments etc.) Regulations 2023 
The Building Safety (Regulator’s Charges) Regulations 2023 effective 1^st October 2023
A guide for persons with duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (as amended) and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. Published by the Home Office Sep 2023.
The Building (Restricted Activities and Functions) (England) Regulations 2023. Published 03 Oct 2023, applicable from 06 April 2024.
HSE Building Safety Regulator strategic plan 2023 – 26 (first published 28th Nov 2023)

The regulations can all be found here: The Building Safety Act: secondary legislation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

The latest for practitioners in the disciplines of building surveying, building control and building management. Access Building Safety Act related articles in the Built Environment Journal.

Your complimentary CPD resources live and on-demand

As one of our RICS Professionals, you have access to essential, global and local content in a bite-sized format.

Discover the latest webinars, podcasts and conferences available to you including building safety and fire safety.

Access your dashboard

RICS UK Building Surveying Conference 2024 London May 2024

A recording of the conference will also be available when you have an active subscription to our Development Package.

RICS UK Fire Safety Conference (online) – save the dates 15^th & 16^th October 2024.

UK recorded webinar series: Building Safety Act – 6.0hrs formal CPD, free for members*

Join us for an informative webinar series dedicated to unpacking the latest developments in the Building Safety Act. As secondary legislation continues to evolve, staying informed is essential. That's why we're offering bite-sized pre-recorded webinars, each lasting 30-45 minutes, delving into key topics within the Act.

Designed as part of a comprehensive toolkit, these webinars are tailored to keep professionals abreast of crucial changes. With pre-recorded sessions, updates can be seamlessly integrated as needed, ensuring you're always equipped with the most current information. Furthermore, these are also free for members.

Webinars in the series:

Building Control Process Changes – presented by Andy Thomas MRICS MIFireE MBA, Principal Building Control Officer, Fylde Borough Council
Principal Designer Process Changes – presented by Phil Southgate Phil Southgate BSc(hons) FRICS C.Build E FCABE, Director, Norder Design Associates Ltd.
Gateways 1, 2 and 3 – presented by Andy Thomas MRICS MIFireE MBA, Principal Building Control Officer, Fylde Borough Council
Competence update on Building Control (BICoF) - Andy Thomas MRICS MIFireE MBA, Principal Building Control Officer, Fylde Borough Council
Competence update on Principal Accountable Persons and Accountable Persons – presented by Alexandra Anderson, Partner, RPC
Competence update on Project Managers – Steven Thompson BSc MBA FRICS, Senior Specialist - Construction Standards, RICS

*Included when you have a free active subscription to our member CPD Support Package.

See this link to the on-demand recorded RICS webinar 16 April 2024 on PAS9980, which is free to members who have subscribed to the Development Package, or £25 otherwise for members.

BSR have also hosted a series of 26 webinars, designed to educate and inform stakeholders and dutyholders working across the built environment. The 26 sessions, dedicated to advancing building safety, included topics covering:

the fundamentals of the Building Safety Act
information for Registered Building Inspectors
the ‘Golden Thread’
the building assessment certification process
building safety competence
planning Gateway One
building Safety Cases
resident engagement, and much more.

All of the events were recorded and you can now watch them back at your convenience, see this link.

Further questions?

Email the RICS Standards team – standards@rics.org

FIRE SAFETY INFORMATION >

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The content of the FAQs is not intended as a comprehensive or definitive guide and legislation and government guidance should always be referred to. It does not constitute any form of legal advice and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to particular circumstances.

If you have any specific queries, the BSR can be contacted via https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/index.htm.

FAQs updated 05 November 2024.

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Building Safety Act Frequently Asked Questions

Why is this Act being introduced?

When did it receive Royal Assent and come into force?

Is there a summary of the Act available?

What is the position in Wales?

What is the position in Scotland?

What is the position in Northern Ireland?

What does this mean for the built environment industry?

How will this affect RICS members and Firms?

What this means for building owners

What this means for residents and homeowners

Your Home, Your Safety

Which buildings have to be registered?

What defines a ‘higher-risk building’ (HRB) or ‘relevant building’?

What are the Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) Regulations 2023?

How do I know the height of a building?

What will the impact of the extension of the period of limitation in the Defective Premises Act 1972 have on professional indemnity insurance (PII)?

What is a Safety Case Report ?

What is a Building Assessment Certificate?

What is Gateway 1?

What is Gateway 2?

Who is the Accountable Person ?

What is resident engagement?

How does the Act affect building control ?