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Kendall Kingscott

Addressing The Building Safety Act

The construction industry faces unprecedented change in working to the requirements of the Building Safety Act (BSA). The amended Building Regulations (BR), brought about by Section 3 of the BSA, represent the biggest change to UK Building Safety regulation for nearly 40 years.

The obligation for the client, Principal Designer for Building Regulations (PD-BR) and Principal Contractor for Building Regulations (PC-BR) to collectively sign off a completed building as BR-compliant is concentrating minds upon compliance.

KK is intent on leading the way through this change, through developing a service that enables us and our clients to be compliant with the new legislation. The new post of PD-BR is different to the similarly named role we offer under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM). In combination with other new duty holders, this new role will help deliver compliance for clients and safety for building occupants.

The key aim is safety. The BSA and the resultant amended Building Regulations demand collaboration across the whole of industry. As a long-time advocate for collaboration within our multi-disciplinary personnel – enshrined in our 1 Team ethos and project delivery teams – KK is ideally placed to provide this service.

The Act’s foundations

The roots of the act are in the findings of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, commissioned by government in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire that claimed 72 lives in June 2017. The Review, by former chair of the Health and Safety Executive Dame Judith Hackitt, called for collaboration within industry to deliver buildings that prioritise the safety of end users.

Breaking down the so-called silos in which all disciplines – from architects, designers, surveyors and engineers to contractors and specialists of all types – have been working, the Review says, will assist the effort to achieve the levels of professional safety that are commonplace in the oil and gas and chemicals sectors.

This aim underpins the Act’s step-change for industry, replacing previous conventions, described as ‘a broken system’ by Hackitt, that led to the confusion over responsibility, accountability and compliance identified in the Review.

A new way of thinking about safety

The BSA is prompting new ways of working across the entire construction process, through increased collaboration and:

  • A gateway design and construction process for Higher Risk Buildings (HRBs) overseen by the PD-BR to ensure end users’ safety is considered throughout
  • Compulsory collation of digital project data during construction to form a ‘golden thread’ of information for HRBs
  • Establishment of two regulators: one for building safety and another for construction products.

The Building Safety Regulator was launched in 2022 to:

  • Regulate HRBs
  • Raise safety standards of all buildings
  • Help professionals in design, construction and building control to improve their competence.

Responsibility for regulation of construction products in the UK has been within the remit of the Office for Product Safety and Standards since April 2021. Plans to establish a National Regulator for Construction Products have not yet been realised.

KK monitored developments in the run-up to the enactment of the amended building regulations in October 2023. Since then, we have had a working group focusing on how to bring about the requirements of the regulations in practice. There has been limited practical guidance and consensus on the day-to-day delivery of the new legislation. This situation is starting to improve, but there is still a way to go.

We have mapped out the service we will provide to meet the requirements of the amended building regulations and, by extension, the BSA. This has been done within input from the Association for Project Safety (APS), to ensure our approach is in line with relevant professional standards and good practice.

Ensuring the competence of our team

The duty holder competency requirements of Designers and Principal Designers (along with other duty holders, including the client, Principal Contractors and Contractors) are set out in the amended Building Regulations. We are mapping the capabilities of our technical staff, to ensure that they have the appropriate skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for the project roles and duties they take on under the Building Regulations, whether as a designer and/or a Principal Designer.

In order to do this effectively and demonstrably, we are in the process of establishing an Organisational Capability Management System, in line with recently published guidance.

KK is providing additional training for our technical staff, to reinforce existing skills and knowledge on the building regulations and to ensure that all personnel are aware of what is expected of them (and of those they will be working alongside). This has been via in-house briefings and will be augmented by external courses.

We are also reviewing the Principal Designer registers established by the RIBA, CIAT and APS, and which members of KK staff will be appropriate to apply to join. This will allow successful applicants to demonstrate competence to carry out the new duty holder role, and our clients to show that they are complying with their legal duties by employing competent people.

Demonstrating compliance to assure all parties

At the end of a project, the client must submit a confirmation statement, and the PD-BR and PC-BR must each submit compliance declarations. These documents are to confirm that each party has fulfilled their respective duties in connection with Building Regulations compliance. All parties need to be demonstrably compliant in order to do this with peace of mind.

Managing Director Andrew Bailey says that although the response from industry has been fragmented, KK is tackling this issue head-on. “We’re grasping the nettle here, to make sure we, and therefore our customers, fully understand the BSA’s implications so we can all proactively meet its requirements.”

“As providers of PDs and Lead Designers, we are accustomed to being at the heart of the construction process and so we will be central to how the BSA is implemented. Our PD-BRs will work closely with construction teams, architects, engineers, property managers and clients to ensure that all aspects of building design, construction and maintenance meet the required safety standards.”

The requirement for greater interaction fits perfectly with KK’s collaborative working concept, 1 Team. “Culturally, we are already aligned with the collaborative spirit required,” says Bailey. “This has a two-fold advantage: our people understand how a multi-disciplinary consultancy works and what each discipline requires; as well as being able to advocate for and support the necessary collaboration with other parties.”