The Building Safety Act – November 2023

Navigating the Building Safety Act: What Contractors need to know 

In this webinar, we provide you with invaluable insights and strategies for navigating the Building Safety Act effectively. Our host, Robert Walton, Chief Product and Engineering Officer, will be joined by Kizzy Augustin, Health, Safety, Fire and Environment Partner at Mishcon de Reya, to provide you with expert insight. 

Webinar held: 2nd November 2023

Hosted by: Rob Walton and Kizzy Augustin

Key Takeaways:

• The Building Safety Act applies to all buildings and ensures everyone involved in building and maintaining a building are held accountable. 
• Buildings in scope – What is a High-Risk Building (HRB)? 
  • At least 18m tall OR 
  • At least 7 storeys high AND 
  • Contains at least 2 residential units 

• Building Safety Regulator role for all building safety with enhanced duties for HRB’s to ensure the buildings we build and occupy are safe, fit for purpose and look after the people who use them. 

• Dutyholders 
  • An Accountable Person (AP) is an organisation or person who owns or is responsible for the structure and exterior of the building and maintenance of that building. They have a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent a building safety risk from happening and reduce the seriousness of an incident if one happens. 

• Secondary Legislation – applies to all building work not just HRB’s 
  • Need to demonstrate competency throughout the supply chain.
  • Behaviours and culture are just as important as demonstrating your experience.
  • Ensures all parties are held accountable.

• Competence now formalised in law 
  • BSI Flex 8670 – focuses on core built environment and applies to everyone 
  • PAS 8671 – framework for Principal Designers 
  • PAS 8672 – framework for Principal Contractors 
  • PAS 8763 – management of safety in residential buildings 

• Before taking on a contract for any building project it is your responsibility to have all the appropriate documentation to demonstrate that you meet the competency requirements. 

• Liability & Penalties 
  • Liability Limitations has increased from 6yrs to 15yrs if works are completed after the 28th June 2022 or 30yrs if the works were completed before the 28th June 2022. 
  • Those who are potentially liable and could be brought into a claim include: those who designed a building, those who built the building and those who are working on refurbishments. 
  • Fines and criminal liability: from 6th April 2023 it is now a criminal offence to breach building regulations or provide false or misleading information to the regulator, punishable by an unlimited fine and up to 2 years imprisonment. 

• Top tips to reduce risk
  • Culture test – How do you identify and mitigate risk in your organisation? What are the systems you have in place? 
  • Review your safety policies and practices – It’s not enough to have a document in a filing cabinet somewhere, how is it implemented in practice? 
  • Senior Executive BSA training – Does the Management team understand their roles, responsibilities, and liabilities? 

• Remember that it is your responsibility to ensure that everyone throughout all the tiers of your supply chain meets the competency requirements.

• BSA Goal – We are working closely with the industry to develop a BSA question set that meets the compliance and competency requirements for the Building Safety Act. This will be included for free in Constructionline Gold membership plans. 
• BSA Radar demo – Analytics and reports showing High-Risk Building (HRB) and Standard Construction (SC) Compliance are now available to existing Constructionline buyer members.