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Episode 89 - Building Safety Act (Part 1)

• Maria Skoutari • Season 1 • Episode 89

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This week we will be talking about everything we know so far on the Building Safety Act. This episode content meets PC1 - Professionalism, PC2 - Clients, Users & Delivery of Services & PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes  of the Part 3 Criteria.

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Episode 89:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast, 

The show that helps part 3 students jump start into their careers as qualified architects and also to provide refresher episodes for practicing architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about everything we know so far on the Building Safety Act. Todays episode meets PC1 & PC2 & PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

So I’ve previously very briefly spoke about this in Episode 44 when I covered Legislation changes in 2022 and also in Episode 62 in the interview with Project Four Safety, but I know a lot of you wanted to understand the legislation better and now with the release of the secondary legislation and implementation of it this October I wanted to do a dedicated episode to explain a bit more about the roles and processes. A lot of information has come out so I will be splitting the episode into 2 parts to ensure I provide you with all the information to better understand these new Regulations and what it means for projects and us as architects. Today I will be covering the Building Safety Act has changes to the application process alongside the dutyholders duties and next week I will cover the Gateways, Change Control Plan and Golden Thread.

So the Building Safety Act essentially, changes the application process and the level of information required before undertaking building work. The whole process must be considered from the outset – before you submit a building control approval application, and dutyholders must review how they are going to:

  • construct the scheme; 
  • manage change; and
  • how they will meet and evidence the functional requirements of the building regulations. 

A key item to note is that the legislation affects all projects, with additional rules and responsibilities for ‘higher’ risk buildings. 

Higher risk buildings are defined under the Building Act as:

Buildings which contain at least two residential units, and it also includes care homes, student accommodation and hospitals where at least one bed is intended for use by a person admitted to the premises for an overnight stay. 

In terms of height, higher risk buildings are considered the ones where the height of the top storey that contains residential units is 18m measured from the finished floor level of that top from to ground level on the lowest side of the building and/or is over 7 storeys. If there is plant on the roof for example these are excluded from the measurement. 

In terms of requirements, higher risk buildings will require:

  • To meet the gateway system
  • Have robust change control in place
  • Demonstrate competence
  • Demonstrate compliance with the Building Regulations
  • Adopt the golden thread 
  • Registered for Building Safety Case&Registration Post-Occupation - this point doesn’t apply to care homes or hospitals

So if a client is seeking to build a new HRB, or create one through change of use or alteration/extension, or plan to undertake building work to an existing HRB they will need to follow the new building control regime. 

This means:

• submitting a building control approval application to the Building Safety Regulator to obtain approval before starting any building work;

• that the work is constructed in accordance with that approval and that the work is suitably completed to meet the functional requirements of the building regulations; and if its planned to make changes that approval is obtained, when necessary, for those changes before progressing with them; and

• submitting information at the end of a project to demonstrate how the project complied with the functional requirements – meaning that what has been said has been built and provided evidence to demonstrate this. A residential building, or part of a residential building, cannot be occupied until the BSR issues a completion certificate and the residential building is registered with them.

• the client will need to make arrangements to appoint a competent Principal Designer and Principal Contractor for building regulations purposes. Dutyholders will have to demonstrate (not just declare) to the regulator how their building is designed, built and managed such that all their legal responsibilities are fulfilled.

This leads to the new duty holders which have been introduced under the Building Regulations (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023, which include the client, in the case of a domestic client their duties are to be carried out by the principal contractor or principal designer. Other duty holders include the principal designer and principal contractor as well as duties on designers and contractors. All duty holders are required to ensure they are competent and have the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour to carry out the design and building work they are required to undertaken and is within the limits of their competence. Dutyholders are also required to cooperate with other duty holders and coordinate their work and communicate and provide information to other duty holders. Under the proposed requirements, the duty holders will need to ensure that there are arrangements and systems in place to plan, manage and monitor design and building work to ensure it complies with Building Regulations. These new duties apply to all buildings to which the Building Regulation  2010 apply, not just higher-risk buildings.This is to ensure a stronger focus on compliance with regulations for design and building work, with additional obligations for higher-risk buildings. 

Dutyholders can be an organisation or an individual and they can carry out the role of more that one duty holder, provided they have the skills, knowledge, experience and, if an organisation, the organisational capability and competence necessary to carry out those roles. If any duty holders feel they don’t satisfy their competence requirements they should refuse to accept an appointment for works they’re not competent to deliver.

The dutyholders must also provide a compliance declaration where the appointment of a principal designer (or sole or lead designer) ends before a completion certificate application is submitted to the regulator, signed by the principal designer and principal contractor with a statement their respective duties were met. Where this is not available, the client must provide a statement confirming the reasons why the declaration is not available. The dutyholders must satisfy the requirements of the competence declaration by providing a statement of compliance. 

Now, lets look at the Clients Duties first:

The client is the person responsible for commissioning the building work and the person that has overall control over the project. For high-risk buildings, the client will be the one responsible for the golden thread information.

The client is responsible for making suitable arrangement for planning, managing and monitoring a project, including the allocation of sufficient time and resource, and to deliver compliance with building regulations. The client is also responsible for appointing the principle designer to be in control of the design work and a principal contractor to be in control of the building work. 

The client is also to provide building information to every designer and contractor on the project and have arrangements to ensure information is provided to designers and contractors to make them aware that the project includes any existing or proposed higher risk building work. 

The client is also expected to cooperate and share information with other relevant duty holders. 

Now, in the case where there is a change in client any time after a building control approval application is made or a building notice is given, the new client must inform the relevant authority immediately. Similarly with if the client appoints a principal designer, they must give notice to the relevant authority. 

In cases where the client is a domestic client, the outgoing dutyholder must provide the information to the domestic client within 5 calendar days of their appointment ending and the person appointed must be provided with the information on the date of their appointment or as soon as practicable after that date. That person must then give notice to the relevant authority, the domestic client must ensure that the people appointed have the right competencies to take on these roles. If the domestic client, however, does not hold sufficient competence to determine this, then the clients duties will be placed on those undertaking the design and building work. 

These duties apply to all building work not just higher risk buildings.

Next we have the Principal Designer Duties:

A principal designer, as you are probably aware, is a designer appointed by the client in projects involving more than one contractor. The principal designer can either be an organisation or an individual with sufficient knowledge, experience and ability to carry out the role. Similarly with CDM, the Principal Designer must ensure the client is aware of their duties for the building work.

Now when it comes to the principal designers duties, these include:

  • To plan, manage and monitor the design work during the design phase
  • Take all reasonable steps to ensure the design work carried out by them and anyone under their authority is planned, managed and monitored so that the design will comply with all relevant requirements of the building regulations
  • They are to ensure that they and all those working on the project, cooperate, communicate and coordinate their work with the client, principal contractor and other designers and contractors 
  • They are to liaise with the principal contractor and share information relevant to the building work 
  • Assist the client in providing information to others

Key item to note with the new Building Safety Act Principal Designer role is that it will apply to all buildings not just high-rise residential.

The key tasks of the new Building Safety Act Principal Designer is to:

  • Monitor and update the design change control document
  • Demonstrate possessing the required skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours
  • Demonstrate Building Regulations compliance for design
  • Collation of the Gateway 2 information alongside the client and principal contractor which constitutes the full plans submission
  • Ensure an appropriate frequency of inspections of higher-risk building design work for safety occurrences throughout the construction phase 
  • And also feed into the golden thread 

To accept these duties, the Building Safety Act Principal Designer will need to have competence specific to the project requirements. It is the client’s duty to ensure compliance with relevant requirements and to ensure arrangements are maintained and reviewed. It should therefore be expected that the Principal Designer will need to review their competence annually, which may need reflecting in organisational processes and procedures, or should the scope of works change to an extent that competence may also need reviewing, such as higher-risk building work. One item to highlight, the case where one Principal Designer is taking over from another principal designer, they will require due diligence to ensure duties to that point have been discharged in accordance with requirements, to satisfy themselves (or their organisation) that the building design and building works (as applies at appointment) are compliant. 

When taking on the role of Building Safety Act Principal Designer, architects should send a client care letter outlining the clients duties and ensuring client understand them. 

So what are the differences between a CDM Principal Designer Vs a Building Safety Act Principal Designer:

  • At RIBA Stage 1, the CDM Principal Designer is expected to advise the client of their duties under CDM, agree with the client the Principal Designer Scope of Service and ensure the project brief includes CDM processes and management. Whereas a BSA PD at RIBA Stage 1, is expected to agree the Principal Designer duties with the client and ensure the project brief includes fire safety requirements, processes and management arrangements
  • At RIBA Stage 2, the CDM Principal Designer is expected to visit the site to determine any key issues, review available pre-construction information, ensure all designers have access to the pre-construction information, advise the client of further surveys that may be required and by when, carry out a CDM design review against the principles of prevention prior to concept submission, create an initial CDM risk register, set out the requirements for the cleaning, access and maintenance strategy as well as the requirements for plant replacement and outline the construction strategy. Whereas a BSA PD at RIBA Stage 2, is expected to consider the fire safety requirements in relation to building access for emergency services and if there is adequate water supply and carry out an independent Building Regulations plans review and design workshop prior to concept submission 
  • At RIBA Stage 3, the CDM Principal Designer is expected to review the new pre-construction information, ensure all designers have access to the pre-construction information, carry out a CDM Design Review against the principles of prevention at mid-stage and end of stage, update the CDM Risk Register, develop the cleaning, access and maintenance strategy as well as the strategy for plant replacement and develop the outline construction strategy. Whereas a BSA PD at RIBA Stage 3, is expected to develop and ensure the fire statement is prepared and aligns with the proposed design, carry out an independent Building Regulations Design Review Mid-stage and end of stage and ensure the fire statement is finalised and reviewed prior to submission of the Regulator. 
  • At RIBA Stage 4, the CDM Principal Designer is expected to again carry out all the requirements mentioned at Stage 3 with the addition of collating the pre-construction information for tender purposes.  Whereas a BSA PD at RIBA Stage 4, is expected to submit competence demonstration to the client, establish a Change Control Plan, and carry out an Independent Building Regulations compliance design review mid stage and end of stage. There are three items at Stage 4 which are required for higher risk buildings only which include preparing an initial Fire & Emergency file, assisting the client to submit full plans and supporting documents to the regulation and reviewing and agreeing the partial occupation strategy.
  • At RIBA Stage 5, the CDM Principal Designer is expected to have ongoing Design Reviews as required, carry out sub-contractor design CDM Risk Reviews, monitor design changes for new risks to health and safety, monitor temporary works, ensure all designers and contractors have access to the pre-construction information, collate the health & safety file, prepare and review as built information, finalise the strategy for cleaning, access and maintenance and plant replacement. Whereas a BSA PD at RIBA Stage 5, is expected to record design changes in the agreed change control plan, prepare a draft building safety information pack, inspect the works and issue design changes to the Building Safety Regulator which is applicable for higher risk building only.
  • And finally at RIBA Stage 6, the CDM Principal Designer is expected to review and finalise the health and safety file and review and collate final as built information. Whereas a BSA PD at RIBA Stage 6, is expected to finalise the Building Safety Information pack including fire and emergency file, for higher risk buildings only the PD is to advise the principal accountable person regarding the registration of the premises as well as issuing conformity declaration to the regulator and advising the client on the occupancy arrangements required by the accountable person. And lastly, assist the client with the completion certificate application which is applicable for all projects. 


To assist architects with the new Building Safety Act duties, the RIBA has launched the Principal Designer Register:

This Register will have two levels of certification: a general competency level, and a higher level for those working on Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs) where designs have to be submitted through the Gateways process to the new Building Safety Regulator. Every construction project requiring Building Regulations approval will need to have a Principal Designer appointed by the client under the revised regulations that came into force on 1 October 2023. Its important to highlight that the regulations don’t require the Principal Designer under Building Regulations to be on an accredited register, but the RIBA felt that a key purpose of the regulations is to ensure that all statutory dutyholders on construction projects have the necessary competence to undertake their work and should be able to demonstrate this competence that’s why the launches the Principal Designer Register.

So, individual RIBA Chartered Members with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform the role can now apply to join the register by completing a three-part assessment process designed to evaluate both theoretical understanding and practical experience:

  • Stage 1 will be to test the general understanding and knowledge of the applicant under both CDM and Building Regulations with a further supplementary test required for architects seeking accreditation to carry out the Principal Designer role on HRBs
  • Stage 2 will be a written submission detailing experience relevant to Principal Designer competence criteria, including a CV and case studies that evidence skills, knowledge and behaviours. Those seeking accreditation for HRBs will need to supply evidence of design management on relevant buildings
  • And Stage 3 will be an interview assessment to validate evidence provided at earlier assessment stages and to ensure an understanding of Principal Designer duties based on questions and discussion

Now, what if an architect predominantly works on smaller scale domestic projects, what will their duties be under the Building Safety Act:

The Building Safety Act applies to all buildings, not just higher risk buildings, so the Act will also affect small scale projects. Meaning, the new duty holder roles will apply to domestic projects as well and the 5 duties I mentioned earlier will apply which are relatively similar to those under CDM. The key change for small practices is that a project subject to Building Regulations, which involves more than one contractor, must have a Principal Designer under CDM regulations and under the BSA (which may be the same entity/individual). The BSA Principal Designer's duties include, as mentioned, coordinating design work so that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the design is such that if built, the building works to which the design relates are in accordance with all relevant regulations. If a domestic client does not appoint a separate Principal Designer in writing when required, then the designer in control of the design phase of the project will automatically become the Principal Designer by default. Architects should explaining to domestic clients that the new (Designer and) Principal Designer role is a regulatory requirement of prescriptive duties, if a consultant is subcontracted by the architect to carry out these duties, the architect will still retain the statutory responsibility for performing the Principal Designer role and would need to be satisfied that the third party has the required competency.

The RIBA has put together new client care letter templates for both domestic and commercial client that RIBA Members can access to start using moving forward on their projects. 

So that covers the changes relating to the architects duties and role.

Now lets move on to at the next key roles duties, the Principal Contractor:

As I am sure you are aware, the principal contractor is appointed by the client to coordinate the construction phase of a project where it involves more than one contractor. 

Their key duties involve:

  • Planning, managing and monitoring the design work during the building work
  • Cooperate with the client, Principal Design, and other designers and contractors to the extent necessary to ensure that the work complies with all relevant requirements of the buildings regulations 
  • Ensure cooperation, communication and coordination on all working on the project and ensure this is shared with the client, Principal Designer and other designers and contractors 
  • Liaise with the Principal Designer and share information relevant to the building work
  • Assist the client in providing information to others 

These duties apply to all building work not just higher risk buildings.

Another role which has been introduced from the Building Safety Act is the Accountable Person/Principal Accountable Person.

The Building Safety Act, requires the accountable person to take all reasonable steps to prevent building safety risks and reduce the severity of an incident if it occurs. Their duties include:

  • Registering the building with the Building Safety Regulator - this is to be done by the principal accountable person
  • Assessing the building safety risks - to be done by the accountable person
  • Have arrangements in place to manage building safety risks - to be done by the accountable person
  • Prepare a safety case report - to be done by the principal accountable person
  • Applying for a building assessment certificate when invited to do so - to be done by the principal accountable person

So to sum up what I discussed today:

  • The Building Safety Act 2022 amends the Building Act 1984 to: create powers to prescribe requirements on those who procure, design, plan, manage and undertake building work; and introduce new enforcement powers for building control authorities. 
  • Higher risk buildings are buildings which contain at least two residential units, and are above 18m or 7 storeys high
  • New dutyholder roles have been introduced into building regulations, whereby everyone who has a stake in a project (the client, the designers and the contractors) have duties to have arrangements and systems in place to plan, manage and monitor both the design work and the building work to ensure compliance with building regulations. 
  • A dutyholder can be an organisation or an individual, and they can carry out the role of more than one dutyholder, provided they have the skills, knowledge, experience and (if an organisation) the organisational capability and competence necessary to carry out those roles.
  • The main dutyholders are the client, principal designer & principal contractor. These duties apply to all building work not just higher risk buildings
  • And the Building Safety Act, requires an accountable person on higher risk building to take all reasonable steps to prevent building safety risks and reduce the severity of an incident if it occurs.


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Maria Skoutari

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