Technical Note: Overview – Building Safety Act 2022

Introduction

Cahill Design Consultants Limited (CDC) has created this technical note to outline requirements under the new Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022 which achieved Royal assent in April 2022.

The BSA names the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR). Therefore, the BSR will regulate higher-risk buildings (HRB’s) over 18m in height or with 7 storeys or more and having at least 2 residential units (formerly referred to as high-rise residential buildings)

Likewise, hospitals and care homes meeting similar height requirements will be regulated by the BSR during the design and construction phases of development only.

New Regulatory Framework

The BSR will enforce the new regulatory framework for higher-risk buildings (aka high rise residential buildings) which includes the following:

• HSE being a statutory consultee for planning applications (Gateway 1)
• BSR becoming the building control authority for higher-risk buildings
• Decision points during design and construction (Gateway 2 and 3)
• The golden thread of building information – identified, stored, and updated throughout the building’s life cycle
• Mandatory reporting of prescribed fire and structural safety occurrences to BSR

Under the Building Safety Act those responsible for occupied, higher-risk buildings (high rise residential buildings) will be required to:

• Register their building with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR)
• Perform a building safety risk assessment
• Introduce measures to manage building safety risks
• Prepare a safety case report for their building to give to BSR on request

Timeframes

If you need further assistance with the regulations, please get in touch via the contact form below or call us on +44 (0) 1206 809 598.

For information of how to prepare for the new building safety framework for HRB’s please see the HSE website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/building-safety/how-to-prepare.htm

This technical note is not an exhaustive list of requirements under the Building Safety Act

Download our technical note for reference

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