Regulations and Guidance
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The Building Safety Alliance, a collaborative effort uniting leading industry figures, associations, and bodies, has announced the publication of two pivotal documents aimed at bolstering competence standards and fostering the recruitment of qualified professionals within the residential occupied sector.
The newly unveiled documents, BSAS 01:2024 Organisational Capability Management System Standard and Guidelines outlining competence expectations for stakeholders involved in specifying, procuring, and managing services for occupied high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings, serve as essential resources for organisations seeking to enhance competence within their building safety functions. These initiatives align with the imperative of meeting the requirements set by the new building safety regime and its regulations pertaining to competence.
The Standard will next become part of the British Standards Institute (BSI) standards development process, towards a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) or full British Standard (BS). Both documents are available free of charge - anyone interested in the Standard, will be engaged in a feedback process:
To request a ccopy of the Organisation Capability Standard CLICK HERE
To request a copy of the Guidelines for Competence CLICK HERE- Building Safety Regulator
- Regulations and Guidance
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The first phase of the BSR's campaign activity has focused on encouraging residents to visit the dedicated campaign page and to sign-up to newsletters for further information to help understand their responsibilities and how they can take part in important deicison making about their building.
You can visit the page here: Your home, your safety - Making Buildings Safer
- Building Safety Regulator
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The Health and Safety Executive has published new guidance today (4 April) on preparing a Building Assessment Certificate (BAC) application for Principal Accountable Persons (PAPs).
The PAP for a high-rise residential building must apply for a BAC when told to do so by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) within 28 days - the new application portal is also live here
- Building Safety Regulator
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As the building control authority for higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Regulator is reminding the construction industry about the deadline to be part of the transitional arrangements for building control approval.
These transitional arrangements allow projects to stay under the current building control regime – and avoid transfer to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). Doing this ensures that eligible projects stay under the old rules and will allow projects - including building safety remediation work - to continue without delay.
This means:
- If your project had building control arrangements established before October 1st, 2023, and has made substantial progress before April 6th, 2024, it qualifies for transitional provisions.
- Under these provisions, your project can continue to be regulated by your existing building control provider. This will require your building control provider to be appropriately registered with the BSR.
- In order to benefit from this, it is essential that you give notice to the relevant local authority, indicating that your building work has progressed sufficiently. If your project involves an Approved Inspector (AI), ensure to provide a copy of this notice to your AI as well.
- Failure to send this notice to the local authority will result in your project transferring to the BSR.
- Projects must use a suitably Registered Building Inspector (RBI) to continue benefitting from the transitional arrangements.
Developers must take the required steps for their projects to qualify.
Further information is available on the news page of the Making Building Safer site.
- 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