Building Safety Regulator
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The below is an extract from an advertorial feature in The Guardian, published 1st February 2024.
‘The Building Safety Regulator was set up in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire and aims to give greater protection to residents of high-rise buildings. One of its building safety leads explains his role in the drive to improve standards in the design and management of tower blocks:
“It’s completely different from the Health and Safety Executive’s usual focus,” says BSR’s building safety regulatory lead, Daniel Lewis-Hickinbotham. “Classically, HSE is business-focused, but by creating BSR, it’s now protecting people in their homes. For me, it’s a much more emotive area of work, because people’s homes are where they feel the most comfortable – it’s their safe place.”
BSR is tasked with assessing the safety of approximately 12,500 higher-risk buildings – those that are seven storeys high or at least 18 metres tall, with two or more residential units – over the next five years.
“Once we’ve received the required information [for the Building Assment Certificate application], we’ll form a multidisciplinary team with the fire service and a structural engineer to make an assessment of the building and a decision on whether or not to issue a building assessment certificate,” says Lewis-Hickinbotham. “Our focus is on making sure residents are safe in their homes, and that the people managing these buildings are responsible for doing it appropriately.”
There’s a big learning curve ahead. “It’s a completely new regime, and these are standards that haven’t been in place before,” says Lewis-Hickinbotham, but he and his team are excited about the challenges to come.
Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/working-for-the-building-safety-regulator/2024/feb/01/our-focus-is-on-making-sure-residents-are-safe-regulating-high-rise-buildings-after-the-grenfell-tragedy
- Building Safety Regulator
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On 19 February, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published a statement on the government’s long-term plan for housing.
The statement included an update on BSR’s plans to publish the new guidance on second staircases:
"The Building Safety Regulator will publish the new guidance on second staircases before the end of March, making clear the need for a second staircase in new multi-occupancy residential buildings that have a top occupied storey above 18 metres, and confirming that evacuation lifts will not be called for as a matter of course, providing housebuilders with the clarity they need to progress developments
The revised statutory guidance, known as Approved Document B, represents general guidance: it will not be exhaustive, and the design of each high-rise building will continue to receive individual scrutiny from experts, now via the Building Safety Regulator. The fire safety design for any higher risk buildings above 18 metres will be subject to review at Planning Gateway One by fire safety professionals, and by a multi-disciplinary team at Gateway Two, who must be satisfied that the final fire safety provisions are appropriate to the requirements of each individual building."
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A new online system to allow residents to inquire whether their HRB has been registered has gone live today (8 February 2024), by searching the register with a building's postcode.
The facility provides anyone the ability to look up a defined set of information relating to successfully registered Higher Risk Buildin via the portal page here. Users will be able to search for buildings by postcode, and the system will return registration information relating to a single building at a time. The system is designed to prevent users gathering data on multiple buildings in a single search and to prevent data scraping of the records.
If users are unable to find information relating to a building they expect to be registered, they will be directed to use the Contact the BSR digital service. The BSR Customer Service Team (CST) team will then support them to find their building on the register. If a building is not identified on the HRB Register, CST will capture basic information regarding the building and pass this information through to the BSR Investigations Unit for review and action as appropriate.
Access the website here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-a-high-rise-residential-building
- Building Safety Regulator
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The BSR has today published a ‘Safety Case Toolkit’ guide which is accessible here.
The information within the guide is aimed at accountable persons (defined under section 84 of the Building Safety Act 2022) to assist them in preparing a safety case report. A safety case report must demonstrate that all reasonable steps have been taken to prevent building safety risks happening and reduce the seriousness if they do.
- Building Safety Regulator
- Safety Case & Report
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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), under whose auspices the BSR operates, has now published three resources to assist with mandatory occurrence reporting (MOR).
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced a stricter safety regime for higher-risk buildings (HRBs), encompassing work to an existing HRB, work to an existing building that coverts it into an HRB or the construction of an entirely new HRB. Among other things, this requires the principal designer and principal contractor on an HRB construction project to operate a mandatory occurrence reporting system during the works and to report any "safety occurrence" to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).
A safety occurrence is an aspect of design or an incident or situation relating to the structural integrity or fire safety of an HRB that would be likely, unless remedied, to present the risk of a significant number of deaths, or serious injury to a significant number of people. Outside the construction phase, an accountable person or principal accountable person must submit a mandatory occurrence notice in relation to those parts of an HRB for which it is responsible.
The new MOR system guidance resources can be accessed below:
- Operating a mandatory occurrence reporting system (31 January 2024), which provides guidance on setting up and maintaining a mandatory occurrence reporting system.
- Submitting mandatory occurrence notices and reports (31 January 2024), which provides guidance on reporting incidents.
- Submit a mandatory occurrence notice and report (31 January 2024), which provides a service for submitting a mandatory occurrence notice.
- Building Safety Regulator
- Mandatory Occurence Reporting
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ARMA Guidance Note B19: Building Safety Act: Registration of Higher-Risk Buildings and Key Building Information
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ARMA Guidance Note B14: Building Safety Act - Duties During Occupation
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ARMA Guidance Note B13: Building Safety Act - Changes in Construction
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TPI Advice Note: Fire Safety Management in Flats
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Guidance Note B02: Fire Safety