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We can help you navigate the Building Safety Act

Everyone in the supply chain has a responsibility to demonstrate competence with the Building Safety Act. We can help you evidence your compliance.

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What is the Building Safety Act?

The Building Safety Act is a critical reform aimed at improving building safety standards across the construction industry. It was prompted by the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 and seeks to enhance accountability in designing, constructing, and maintaining buildings, especially those classified as higher-risk structures. This legislation lays the groundwork for a safer future by addressing longstanding issues related to building safety throughout a structure’s life cycle.

Building Safety Act: What is BSA - Construction

“The Building Safety Act is an essential reform of building safety, impacting everyone throughout the construction industry. It’s encouraging and commendable to see a business like Constructionline- operating at the very heart of the supply chain industry – providing clear guidance on the essential information companies need to be aware of, identifying the steps that need to be taken to remain compliant.”

Kizzy Augustin – Health, Safety, Fire and Environment Partner at Michon de Reya

What's your responsibilities under the Building Safety Act?

The Building Safety Act is the biggest change to building safety in a generation. As a construction leader, you want to be clear about your responsibilities according to the Building Safety Act secondary legislation, to champion best practice in terms of duty holder responsibilities, and ensure all parties throughout your supply chain are similarly committed to fulfilling their obligations.

But with limited time and resources available, it may feel overwhelming trying to get to grips with Building Safety Act duty holders and their responsibilities.

Read on to discover exactly what your duty holder responsibilities are.

Role of the Client

Make suitable arrangements for planning, managing and monitoring their project. In practice, this means hiring the right people, with the right competencies, making sure reasonable steps have been taken to validate this.
If multiple entities are involved on a project, a principal designer and principal contractor must be appointed, ensuring they have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to fulfil their roles.
Provide relevant building information to every contractor and designer involved on a project, as soon as possible.
Advise if the work relates to an existing or proposed higher-risk building.
If the work relates to a higher-risk building, ask if the firms it plans to appoint as either principal contractor or principal designer have a serious sanction levelled against them in the last five years, and confirm whether the issues raised have been appropriately addressed.

Role of Principal Contractors

Plan, manage and monitor building work during the construction phase of the project.
Coordinate building matters so that the construction work complies with all relevant requirements.
Ensure all contractors and any other person involved on the project cooperate with the client, the principal designer, the principal contractor and each other – as well as any successors in a role.
Liaise with the principal designer and share all relevant information.
Review and regard comments from the principal designer that relate to complying with the relevant requirements.
If requested, assist the client in providing information to other designers and contractors.
No more than 28 days after the end of their appointment, provide a document explaining how they fulfilled the above duties
If a replacement principal contractor is appointed, they must review the previous arrangements to ensure building work complies with regulations

Role of Principal Designers

Plan, manage and monitor design work
Cooperate, coordinate and communicate with all duty holders to ensure the design work, if built, complies with building regulations
Liaise with the principal contractor and share any information relevant to the planning, management and monitoring of the building work, and the coordination of the building and design work so that it complies with all relevant requirements
Review and regard all comments from the principal contractor
If requested, assist the client in providing information to other designers and contractors
No more than 28 days after the end of their appointment, provide a document explaining the arrangement put in place to fulfil their duties
If a replacement principal designer is appointed, they must review the previous arrangements to ensure building work complies with regulations

Role of Contractors and Designers

To not start building or design work unless satisfied that the client is aware of the duties owed by the client under all relevant requirements.
Ensure building or design work complies with all relevant requirements. Contractors must also provide each worker under their control with the appropriate supervision, instructions and information to ensure that all building work undertaken meets the relevant demands.
Provide sufficient information about the work to assist the client and other contractors and designers so they can comply with all the relevant requirements.
If carrying out only part of the building or design work, they must consider other work that might directly impact the building or design work, and report any concerns to either the principal contractor or principal designer as appropriate.
If requested, provide advice to either the principal contractor, principal designer or client on whether any work is higher-risk building work.

How can we help you with the Building Safety Act?

BSA Assessments – two question sets

Developed in partnership with key industry partners, the BSA Assessments encompass two primary areas: standard construction and high-risk buildings/trades.

These bring together components from our established industry question sets, alongside a concise selection of BSA-specific queries. This approach streamlines the assessment process, minimising time and effort while ensuring alignment with BSA standards (BSI Flex 8670 v3).

Available for Constructionline Gold and Platinum members at no extra cost.

Find out more about BSA Assessments

Building Safety Act Question Set - Constructionline

BSA Radar – supply chain compliance

Designed for principal contractors and principal designers, our BSA Radar provides you with a one-click view of your supply chain’s compliance, identifying suppliers that may have serious sanctions or areas for you to review.

Whether it’s at a project level or across your entire supply chain, the BSA Radar gives you a real-time view of your supply chain in line with our new BSA Assessments, so you can easily view your supply chain compliance against Standards relating to the BSA, such as BSI Flex 8670 v3.

Free to use for our paying Buyers, our BSA Radar will save you and your team time and effort.

Find out more on BSA Radar

Have you visited our Building Safety Act Resources page yet?

Our BSA resources page is a comprehensive hub for webinars, whitepapers and blogs dedicated to understanding and navigating the complexities of the Building Safety Act.

Find out more

Are you new to Constructionline?

If you are new to Constructionline, you will need to sign up as a Constructionline Gold or Platinum member to gain access to the Building Safety Act Assessments. Fill out the form below, and we’ll help get you started.