The Building Safety Act 2022, which received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, exists to make buildings safer for those who occupy and use them. It sets out responsibilities for those who design, build and maintain buildings, including those in the healthcare sector.
Paul Nash, CIOB (The Chartered Institute of Building), past President and Chair of the body’s Quality Implementation Group, tells us about the impact of the Act and what more can be done to make sure it delivers on its objective to keep us all safe.
Published in May 2018, the Building a Safer Future report provided a blueprint for change which would put the occupants of buildings at the heart of a new system of building safety and eventually lead to legislation in the form of the Building Safety Act 2022 [The Act].
At its heart, the Act is about ensuring that all buildings are safe for those who use them and that those who are responsible for creating, adapting or maintaining those buildings comply with the law and are held to account if they don’t.
The Act applies to any building project that building regulations apply to, with additional regulations applicable to higher-risk buildings (HRB’s).
HRBs are currently defined as buildings over 18 metres or seven storeys in height that contain at least two residential units, and for the part of the Act that applies to design and construction, this includes hospitals and care homes.
The Act saw the introduction of a Building Safety Regulator [BSR] with responsibility for ‘securing the safety of people in or about buildings in relation to risks arising from buildings and improving the standard of buildings’ and introduced ‘gateways’ to ensure that building safety is considered at key stages in the project lifecycle.
The first of these gateways is at planning stage [Gateway 1], where the BSR is a statutory consultee for planning applications on HRB’s. The next two relate to building regulations where the BSR is the Building Control Authority for HRB’s and applicants must obtain approval both before construction can start [Gateway 2] and at completion [Gateway 3].
While the Act has been in force for more than three years, its implementation has not been without issues, notably with the amount of time that it has taken the BSR to process applications for building control approval at Gateway 2.
The statutory approval period for a new build application is 12-weeks and for an existing building is 8 weeks.
But in some cases it has been taking the BSR up to 50 weeks to approve applications, leading to project delays and additional costs.
Although I am not personally aware of any healthcare projects that have been impacted by these delays, I do know that works to a number of existing hospitals are having to comply with the new regulatory regime and are therefore likely to have been affected.
Works to a number of existing hospitals are having to comply with the new regulatory regime and are therefore likely to have been affected
In June this year, the Government stepped in and announced reforms to the BSR with the stated aims of implementing a new fast-track process, partnering with industry and ensuring transparency.
Encouragingly, the latest data released by the BSR in October would suggest that the changes are already leading to an improvement in approval times.
Whilst there is no doubt that the BSR’s operating model was not working, and change was needed, it is important to recognise the quality of the information being submitted by many applicants has also been an issue that has compounded the problem.
It is worthwhile stating the requirement at Gateway 2 is to demonstrate to the BSR how the design, if built, complies with the functional requirements of the building regulations. But evidence published by the BSR earlier this year shows that this was not always happening.
Clients and their professional advisors need to ensure the design information they submit is sufficient to satisfy the regulator of compliance, and the supporting information that needs to be presented alongside the design is also complete.
This requires a more collaborative approach to procurement based on quality and not lowest price, with more investment in design development and earlier supply chain engagement before an application is submitted to the BSR.
There is a clear message to industry that this is something clients and the teams they appoint need to get right if they want to avoid delays in future.
And it is also important to remember the need to demonstrate compliance continues through construction to completion at Gateway 3 where the BSR will require evidence the building, as built, complies with building regulations before it can be occupied.
Looking ahead, I believe we will see a more pragmatic approach from the BSR with better engagement and communication with applicants. But I also expect to see more interventions from the BSR where the industry fails to comply, using the powers granted to it under the Act to hold individuals and organisations to account.
And we know the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report recommended the definition of a HRB be urgently reviewed, so this could result in other types of buildings and projects in the healthcare sector coming within scope of the regime and therefore subject to the gateway process.
It is important those with responsibility for overseeing the construction, renovation and management of all buildings keep up to date as and when changes are announced.
But I am confident that, over time, the implementation and enforcement of the new building safety regime will deliver better, safer buildings.
Where to find out more
The Building Safety Act and the regulations that have followed it can be confusing.
Helpfully, there is industry guidance available to help clients to navigate the new building safety regime, including the CIOB’s recently updated Client Guide ‘Leading Projects in the Built Environment’, which has a section dedicated to the Act.
CIOB has developed a suite of on-line training material and runs training courses to raise awareness of the requirements of the Act, as well as competency certification schemes for Principal Designers and Principal Contractors.
Guidance on preparing an Application for Building Control Approval [Gateway 2] hasbeen produced by the Construction Leadership Council and can be downloaded here.
You can also find updates on the Act, along with blogs and other resources on the CIOB website’s dedicated building safety page.