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.
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:
The government has made the Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No 7 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/104), which come into force on 6 April 2024.
The regulations will bring into force various provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022) that amend the Building Act 1984 (BA 1984) to:
• Provide for the switch from approved inspectors to registered building control approvers under the building regulations regime in England
• Set out transitional provisions dealing with projects that are ongoing under the auspices of an approved inspector.
The Welsh Government has separate powers to commence these aspects of the BSA 2022 for Wales.
Industry will be unsurprised by the coming into force of these new regulations on 6 April 2024, which had already been publicised as the date by which approved inspectors would be replaced by registered building control approvers. It is also a significant date in relation to ongoing projects because it marks the deadline by which work must have "sufficiently progressed" in order to continue to benefit from the transitional arrangements that apply to building projects under the new building control regime.
HSE has published step-by-step guidance on how Principal Accountable Person's and those supporting them, should to approach the Resident Engagement Strategy. A range of case studies is also available to help others gain insight on good practice in resident engagement.
The guidance document sets out key considerations and principles to help the Building Safety Regulator
(BSR), Principal Accountable Persons (PAPs) and Accountable Person (APs) engage effectively
with residents.
It is based on research with a wide cross-section of residents.
On 13th January 2024, new Regulations (the sixth commencement regulations made under the Building Safety Act 2022) have now brought into force various sections in Part 4 of the Act, as of 16th January 2024.
Sections now enacted include: