What is The Building Safety Act? 

Understanding the Building Safety Act can be challenging, with new regulations and terms to comprehend. Here, we answer some frequently asked questions to help you navigate the process.

The Building Safety Act provides for the Building Safety Regulator within the HSE to oversee building safety through the design, construction and occupation stages of a building.

Part 4 of the Building Safety Act focuses on In-Occupation Higher-risk buildings, and a series of new regulations are being implemented to improve safety in high-rise residential buildings. The Act mandates that buildings with at least two residential units and 18 metres or seven stories in height must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator in order to obtain a Building Assessment Certificate.

Existing buildings must be registered between 12th April and 30th September 2023. This registration process should be completed by 1st October 2023.

Early registration demonstrates your commitment to safety and avoids the risk of non-compliance. Some of the information used at the registration stage also gives you a good foundation for compiling your safety case and will identify any gaps early on.

Failure to register an occupied higher-risk building by 1^st October 2023 will be a criminal offence, and the Principal Accountable Person could face a fine or imprisonment.

Key details for registration include building address, details about the Principal Accountable Person (PAP) and Accountable Person (AP), and building eligibility such as height, number of storeys, and number of residential units. Additionally, comprehensive information about the building’s features, including fire safety measures, energy supplies, and structural details, is required.

If there is information you don’t have, you will need to decide how important it is to managing building safety and take reasonable steps to find it. It will depend on the individual circumstances of the building, and the level of detail you require needs to be proportionate to the risk.

Accountable Person

• A person who holds a legal estate in possession in any part of the common parts; or
• A person who does not hold a legal estate but who is under a relevant repairing obligation.

Principal Accountable Person

• The only accountable person in the building or,
• The entity that is either the owner of or has the repairing obligations for the structure and exterior of the building.

Where there is more than one AP, there will need to be a PAP identified who will have oversight and will take on the legal duties with the assistance of the other APs involved.

Accountable Persons have a number of duties, including to:

• Assess and manage building safety risks in the parts of the building they are responsible for.
• Have effective, proportionate measures in place to manage building safety risks.
• Report certain fire and structural safety issues or incidents.
• Engage with residents about the building’s safety.
• Maintain a ‘golden thread’ of information about the building. This information must be held digitally.
• Transfer building safety information to any incoming accountable person
• Notify the Building Safety Regulator if there’s a change to an Accountable Person.
• If there are multiple Accountable Persons for a building, they must work together and share safety information about the building.

• Apply to register the building with the Building Safety Regulator.
• Put together a safety case for the building and prepare a safety case report.
• Operate a reporting system to record building safety issues and incidents.
• Operate a complaints system to investigate concerns about the building’s safety risks or the performance of an Accountable Person.
• Display required information and documentation clearly within the building.
• Prepare and update a residents’ engagement strategy so that residents and owners can participate in making building safety decisions.
• Apply for a building assessment certificate when directed by the Building Safety Regulator.
• The Principal Accountable Person must check that all accountable persons are fulfilling their obligations for the parts of the building they are responsible for.

Commencing April 2024, the Building Safety Regulator will start assessing BAC applications, and upon direction from the Building Safety Regulator, PAPs will be invited to apply for a building assessment certificate (BAC). From the point of invite from the Building Safety Regulator, the PAP will have 28 days to submit the BAC application.

The application must include the safety case report, the resident’s engagement strategy, information on how the mandatory occurrence reporting system operates and a statement confirming that all APs have supplied relevant information and documents to all appropriate persons.

The Principal Accountable Person must implement an effective mandatory occurrence reporting system to allow for urgent safety reporting to the Building Safety Regulator.

A ‘mandatory occurrence’ is an incident or situation relating to structural integrity or fire safety which, if not remedied, would likely present a risk of serious injury or death to a significant number of people.

Information on how the mandatory occurrence reporting system operates will include:

• How is the Principal Accountable Person going to report occurrences to the BSR?
  How are they going to get the information?
• How are they going to share the information?
• How are they going to make sure it is done?

A safety case is a written record of all the information you use to manage building safety risks, and all this information will become part of your building’s golden thread.

The level of detail should be proportionate to the level of risk associated with the building, and it can be simple enough to demonstrate that you are effectively managing those risks. If you are already managing your buildings well to understand the risks, then you are probably doing most of what is already needed to do.

The PAP produces the safety case report, which summarises what is in place and demonstrates that you have taken all reasonable steps to manage building safety risks (spread of fire and structural failure). If there is more than one AP, you must liaise with any other APs for the building to produce the report.

The Safety Case Report will need to contain details of the assessment you have conducted for managing building safety risks and the measures you have in place to manage those risks. This will include both physical measures and the management arrangements that support those measures.

Under the new regime, PAPs must ensure they have a resident engagement strategy which aims to involve residents in matters relating to building safety and sets out the way they are going to talk to their residents, give and receive information, how residents are to engage and how residents can make complaints.

For a more comprehensive look at the Building Safety Reform, you can read more and download our Building Safety Reform brochure here.

At Ashton Fire, we’re dedicated to ensuring your buildings and residents are safe and all reasonable steps are applied to manage building safety risks.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help you.