On 22 March 2023 the Building Safety Regulator ("BSR") hosted its inaugural conference to discuss building safety at Westminster Hall which we were lucky enough to attend. The conference covered a diverse range of topics / issues relating to the new building safety regime in England enacted by the Building Safety Act 2022. While we cannot cover all of the topics discussed at the conference, or really do justice to the full breadth of the debate engendered by the speakers, some of the key takeaways from the conference are summarised below.

Centrality of residents to new building safety regime

A core theme to the conference was the importance of the resident’s voice in relation to building safety. Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive (“HSE”), Sarah Albon, emphasised this message within the introductory speech when discussing the integral nature of the statutory Resident’s Panel within the new building safety regime.

In accordance with the requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022 (“BSA 2022”), the BSR was required to form a new Resident’s Panel to ensure that the residents of higher-risk buildings sit centrally within the new regulatory framework, or, as put by HSE’s Chief Inspector of Buildings, Peter Baker, it will ensure the panel “will act as the voice of their community”. 

In December 2022, a panel of 18 residents was formed by the BSR with members living or renting in higher-risk buildings in England. Each member of the panel will assist by providing feedback on their lived experiences to the BSR and engage with the preparation of guidance. The Residents Panel plans to meet six times a year to ensure resident’s active engagement in the BSR’s operations.

Implementation of building safety regime

From 6 April 2023 new regulations are in force under which any accountable person ("AP") and/or principal accountable person ("PAP") (as relevant) is obliged to register any occupied higher-risk building with the BSR and is obliged to provide key building information to the BSR. The PAP is also under an obligation to notify the BSR of any changes to the building information provided to the BSR as and when the PAP becomes aware of any such change. These regulations are considered in more detail in our recent post on the Building Safety (Registration of Higher-Risk Buildings and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023 (here).

Further to the above, new regulations providing guidance on what buildings are caught by within the definition of 'higher-risk buildings', also came into force on 6 April 2023. The Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023 are available here.

The implementation of these new regulations represent a step change in the management of building safety risks within higher-risk buildings and it is essential that APs and/or PAPs for occupied higher-risk buildings quickly get to grips with the significant new obligations imposed on them. Failure to comply with the registration requirements risks fines and/or imprisonment and the BSR has already indicated that APs and PAPs for existing, occupied higher-risk buildings will only be given 6 months to comply with the new regulations or risk investigation and possible prosecution.

Accountable person and principal accountable person

The scope and the application of the new AP and PAP duty holder roles were the subject of significant discussion at the conference. As a starting point the definitions set out at s.72 and s.73 of the BSA should form the basis of any analysis to determine who is an AP and/or the PAP in relation to any specific higher-risk building. However, the discussions developed the following useful points that may assist in clarifying the position:

  • If the AP is an organisation, it can authorise an individual to act as the single point of contact. Doing so does not mean that this individual becomes the AP and it is not possible to simply delegate the AP’s duties and associated liability.
  • If there is more than one AP for a higher-risk building, the AP that owns or is legally responsible for repairing the structure or exterior of the building is the PAP and will be responsible for discharging the additional duties imposed on the PAP. It is not an exercise of choosing which AP is the PAP, rather which AP meets this criteria.

Golden thread of information

The “golden thread of information” is  a key concept within the new regulatory framework to ensure that the AP and/or the PAP have the right information at the right time to ensure that they can fulfil their duties and effectively assess and manage building safety risks across the entire period of occupation of a higher-risk building.

In relation to new higher-risk buildings, the principle designer and principal contractor will be responsible for collating the information to be included within the package of golden thread information to be passed to the AP and/or the PAP prior to the occupation of the building. It is important to note that the completion of the golden thread information is a pre-requisite to the BSR issuing a completion certificate for the building and that the golden thread information will be inspected by the BSR prior to a completion certificate being issued. As such, any failure to properly prepare and/or collate the golden thread information could result in both delays to the completion of the building and claims for damages against the principal designer and/or the principal contractor.

In relation to existing higher-risk buildings where no golden thread information was provided to the AP and/or the PAP on completion, the AP and/or the PAP will be required to take reasonable steps to source information needed for them to meet their overarching duty to assess and manage building safety risks. This will include:

  • accessing archived paper-based storage, planning authority records, building control records, or documents held by previous owners to collate the necessary information;
  • assessing historic documents to ensure they remain valid, particularly if the building has been refurbished or altered; and
  • to the extent that information gaps remain, considering how important the missing information is for managing building safety and, where necessary, consulting with specialists, undertaking surveys and/or commissioning reports to fill any such gaps.

This article was written by Kayla Urbanski and Tom Weld.