New Guidance on Mandatory Occurrence Notices and Reports

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.