Episode 143 - Building Safety Regulator

This week we will be talking about the Building Safety Regulator. This episode content meets PC3 -  Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Websites:

• https://www.hse.gov.uk/building-safety/regulator.htm
• https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/building-safety-act-gateway-2-submissions-for-architects?utm_campaign=Member Update 211124&utm_content=Read more&utm_term=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestra

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Transcript

Episode 143:

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 provides refresher episodes for practising architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about the Building Safety Regulator. Todays episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

As you all know, with the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022 a number of new roles have been introduced which I covered in previous episodes, one of which is the Building Safety Regulator. 

The Building Safety Regulator in England is the government authority on construction and building guidance and is part of the Health and Safety Executive. It is responsible for overseeing the safety and performance of all buildings in England. Wales, Ireland and Scotland have different processes in place.

The Building Safety Regulator is essentially the Building Control Authority for higher-risk buildings, which broadly are buildings with at least 2 residential units that are at least 18 metres in height or at least seven storeys. During design and construction, the Building Safety Regulator will be responsible for overseeing compliance with building regulation requirements and during occupation, they will be regulating those who are responsible for the management of building safety risks, which are the spread of fire and structural failure.

The Building Safety Regulator will oversee and monitor the performance of all Building Control Bodies in England and the competence of professionals delivering building control functions. 

The purpose of the Building Safety Regulator under the Building Safety Act, is to:

• Regulate higher-risk buildings
• Raise safety standards for all buildings
• Help professionals in design, construction, and building control to improve their competence 

As mentioned, the Building Safety Regulator sets out rules to protect the design and construction of higher-risk buildings. They help give residents confidence in the safety and standards of their building. The Building Safety Regulator has a legal responsibility to consult with residents through the residents panel which is a panel the helps people who live in or rent homes in high-rise buildings around England and gives residents a voice based on their experience.

Panel members acting on behalf of residents will:

• give the Building Safety Regulator advice on aspects of its operation based on real-life experience
• provide input on guidance relating to residents
• assist the Building Safety Regulator with developing its annual statement on resident engagement
• be empowered to set up workgroups to undertake in-depth projects
• provide input on the Building Safety Regulator resident research
• help to test the Building Safety Regulator communications material

As part of the Building Safety Regulators responsibilities and strategic plan, as mentioned they are principally responsible for:

• Setting standards for the design and construction of higher risk buildings
• Helping Accountable Persons manage building safety
• Overseeing the registration of building control bodies and professionals

In terms of their strategy, they are seeking to create a built environment where everyone is competent and takes responsibility to ensure buildings are of high quality and safe. As such, they have established a new regulated building control profession which is the Building Control Approver to ensure both private and public sector building control bodies, and all building control professionals, are operating consistently to the same high standards. To assist with this assessment, they have developed and published the Operational Standards Rules that allows them to monitor and ensure effective delivery of building control functions in the public and private sector.

In terms of competence, the Industry Competence Committee, which was formed under the Building Safety Act, will work to ensure confidence is gained and retained in the competence of individuals working in the built environment. The Industry Competence Committee will assist those working in the built environment by developing and facilitating forums and initiatives to aid continuous improvement, as well as providing advice and guidance on good practice competence management frameworks. The Building Safety Regulator will be responsible for publishing and maintaining the mandatory technical competencies for installers working under competent person schemes.

Now some key activities the Building Safety Regulator is expected to undertake:

1. Is ensuring fire safety is incorporated into planning of new higher risk buildings, as such, the Building Safety Regulator is now a statutory consultee for fire safety matters for planning applications. By providing advice to local planning authorities about fire safety matters related to land use planning considerations and promoting high standards of fire safety design at the earliest opportunity in the development process. This has led to the introduction of Gateway One whereby the Building Safety Regulator is statutory consultee to review the Fire Strategy at planning stage to ensure duty holders engage fire expertise at the conceptual stage and follow extant standards or develop designs which offer an equivalent level of protection.

2. Another key activity the Regulator will be undertaking, is to improve design and construction, by which the Building Safety Regulator will be the single biggest building control authority for England and will work with clients, designers and contractors to ensure they have systems in place to plan, manage and monitor design work as well as assuring construction. The Building Safety Regulator will have the authority to reject applications if they fail to meet building regulations and will be responsible for granting final building control approval before a new higher risk building can be occupied. Apart from obtaining building control approval at the end of construction, dutyholders must also obtain building control approval from the Building Safety Regulator before starting building work and before significant changes are made during construction. The Building Safety Regulator expects those who develop, build and work on higher risk buildings to properly consider the requirements of the building regulations and assure themselves that their building will meet these expectations. This includes making mandatory occurrence reports (MOR) when necessary to the Building Safety Regulator. It is their responsibility to make sure that legal requirements are being met. This will require a shift in culture in those carrying out design and construction work. Where the Building Safety Regulator is not satisfied that the functional requirements of the building regulations are being met, they will take action which could include refusing to allow the building to be constructed or occupied, and enforcement action if required.

3. Another key activity the Regulator will be undertaking, is ensuring Accountable Persons identify the safety risks of fire spread and structural failure in their building and put in place proportionate measures to manage them safely. The aim is that the Building Safety Regulator will assess all existing occupied higher-risk buildings within five years, prioritising buildings primarily on height and number of dwellings. They will also assess new builds and conduct investigatory work, where appropriate, based on intelligence. The Building Safety Regulator will also ensure that Accountable Persons are engaging with residents and enable them to have a voice in key decisions affecting them. Accountable Persons will be required to identify and assess building safety risks and take all reasonable steps to ensure those risks are mitigated and controlled to a proportionate level on an ongoing basis. The information necessary to achieve this will be contained in a ‘Safety Case’. A ‘Safety Case Report’ will include a summary of this information which will demonstrate to the Building Safety Regulator how the Accountable Persons are meeting their duties. All occupied higher risk buildings will need to have at least one clearly identifiable Accountable Person, known as the Principal Accountable Person. All Accountable Persons must ensure they meet the duties placed on them. Accountable Persons are also legally required to make mandatory occurrence reports (MOR) to the Building Safety Regulator. mandatory occurrence reports are structural and fire safety occurrences which meet what is known as the risk condition, which is that if the occurrence is unremedied, there is the potential for a significant number of fatalities or serious injury to a significant number of people. It will be a criminal offence for a dutyholder to not make a mandatory occurrence report when legally required to do so. 

To ensure duty holders follow the Building Safety Regulators monitoring and competence requirements, the Regulator has also introduced an enforcement policy as part of their strategy. Aiming at securing compliance with the relevant legislation and to ensure that duty holders are held to account for significant failures. 

The Building Safety Regulator will, therefore, take enforcement action to secure the safety of people in and around buildings and improve standards of buildings by requiring dutyholders to manage the risks arising from buildings. 

When acting as a building control authority for higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Regulator can serve a number of different enforcement notices:

• First one being a compliance notice which can be served when a duty holder contravenes or is likely to contravene a provision of building regulations
• Another is a stop notice that can be served when building work contravenes a provision of building regulations and the use of the building would present a risk of serious harm to people in or around the buildings, or where work is taking place without building control approval, or a compliance notice has been contravened
• And the third being a notice requiring alteration or removal of offending work can be served where building work contravenes a provision of building regulations

When regulating occupied higher-risk buildings:

• a compliance notice can be served on an accountable person when it appears to the regulator that there is a contravention that requires action to be taken within a certain time period- if the contravention places people in imminent danger, the regulator can specify that the compliance notice is an urgent action notice 

Failure to comply with any of these enforcement notices is a criminal offence and can result in prosecution. The Regulator can also apply to a tribunal to appoint a special measures manager, for an occupied higher-risk building. This action will be considered where the accountable person is repeatedly failing to manage building safety risk, is taking no action to comply with duties, and residents are put at risk of serious harm. This action can be taken in addition to prosecution.

Where regulators have choices about how they exercise their functions, they will:

• consider how they might carry out their activities to minimise likely negative economic impact
• adapt their activities to maximise any likely positive economic impact

Now as mentioned, in addition to monitoring the competence requirements of dutyholders, the Building Safety Regulator also oversees and monitors the performance of all Building Control Bodies in England and the competence of professionals delivering building control functions.

The Regulator oversees the building control profession, encompassing Local Authorities, Registered Building Control Approvers, and individual Registered Building Inspectors. One of their duties includes enforcement powers to ensure accountability, with a focus on enhancing competence, behaviour, and performance standards across the profession. Under such circumstance's, the Building Safety Regulator will assess the performance of Local Authorities and Registered Building Control Approvers by assessing performance data and undertake inspections to verify compliance with standards. As the regulator for the building control profession, they will investigate, and act, where individuals or organisations are found to be guilty of professional misconduct under the Code of Conduct or to have contravened the Professional Conduct Rules and / or Operational Standard Rules.

And lastly in todays episode, lets look at the 3 year timeline of implementation, consolidation and steady state the government has set up to role out the new Building Safety Regulator role and the Act in general:

Starting with Year 1, which was between April 2023-March 2024, the aim in the first year was to start implementation by:

• Higher-Risk Buildings Registration: Registration and submission of "Key Building Information" for occupied higher-risk buildings began in April 2023, with a deadline in October 2023. A national searchable register then launched in early 2024.
• Competence Standards and Conduct: Frameworks for building inspector competence, professional conduct rules, and codes of conduct were introduced in 2023 to enhance oversight and professionalism.
• Building Safety Regulator: From October 2023, the Building Safety Regulator became the authority for higher-risk buildings in England, assuming responsibility for technical policy, oversight, and uncompleted projects.
• Industry Competence Committee: Established in September 2023 to advise on and implement strategies for improving workforce competence in the built environment.
• Early 2024 Actions: Full duties for Accountable Persons came into effect, a resident complaints system was introduced, and actions on un-remediated higher-risk buildings commenced.

Then Year 2 covers the period between April 2024-March 2025 looking at consolidation:

Whereby the regulatory regime is enforced and the regulated building control profession is established.

• At this point, the Building Safety Regulator starts to call in occupied higher-risk buildings for assessment of their compliance with the new duties to assess and manage building safety risks
• Building inspector and building control approver registration becomes mandatory, building control restricted functions and activities can only be carried out by registered inspectors. 
• The Building Safety Regulator will investigate allegations of non-compliance with rules, regulations and codes relating to the building control profession. 
• Planned inspections of Building Control Bodies begin and will be prioritised based on intelligence and risk. Information collected from building control bodies to measure compliance with the Operational Standards Rules, and inspection results will be assessed to establish a baseline of building control activities and compliance with the Operational Standards Rules. 

And then on Year 3, which is between April 2025-March 2026, the aim is to have the new regulatory regime and functions to operating on a steady state basis, reviewing the Building Safety Regulator’s effectiveness and devising the strategy for the next three years. 

• By April 2026 the aim is to have assessed about 40% of occupied higher risk buildings which represents 65% of residential dwellings. 
• Any work on remediating dangerous cladding will be completed or underway, and the Building Safety Regulator will take action on those that are not compliant. 
• By October 2026, the Building Safety Regulator will have completed a cost-benefit analysis of making regular inspections of the condition of electrical installations in relevant buildings with a view to improving the safety of persons in or about relevant buildings, the Building Safety Regulator will also consider what further provision or guidance may be needed regarding:
• stairs and ramps in relevant buildings; 
• emergency egress of disabled persons from relevant buildings; and 
• automatic water fire suppression systems in relevant buildings. 

To sum up what I discussed today:

• The Building Safety Regulator, established under the Building Safety Act 2022, oversees safety in higher-risk buildings in England. Its responsibilities include ensuring compliance with building regulations during design, construction, and occupation and regulating the competence of building control professionals.
• The Building Safety Regulator has a legal responsibility to consult with residents via a Resident Panel, allowing input on operations, safety measures, and communication. 
• The Regulator will be required to ensure Accountable Persons identify the safety risks of fire spread and structural failure in their building and put in place proportionate measures to manage them safely and report significant safety occurrences. Non-compliance can lead to enforcement actions, including criminal prosecution.
• Another key focus of the Regulator is raising industry competence through the Industry Competence Committee, which provides guidance, supports continuous improvement, and ensures adherence to technical standards. The regulator monitors building control bodies and professionals, enforcing conduct rules and operational standards.
• As the principal building control authority for higher-risk buildings, the regulator enforces strict oversight, including reviewing fire safety designs (Gateway One), approving construction plans, and rejecting non-compliant applications. Enforcement actions range from compliance notices to stop orders, ensuring legal and safety adherence.
• Three-Year Implementation Plan

Year 1 (2023–24): Initial implementation, including higher-risk building registration, competence frameworks, and regulator oversight starting October 2023.

Year 2 (2024–25): Consolidation with mandatory registration for building inspectors, inspections, and enforcement actions for non-compliance.

Year 3 (2025–26): Steady-state operation, assessing 40% of higher-risk buildings, remediating cladding, and conducting reviews on safety measures like electrical inspections and water suppression systems.