The new Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022 requirements for the Building Regulations process came into effect on 1st October. They will apply to all projects that require Building Regulations approval and haven’t yet been submitted, or that are unlikely to start on site before 6th April next year.
For those unfamiliar with the new legislation, the onus is now on clients to ensure all building work is completed in accordance with the Building Regulations, and in order to do so they can call on the assistance of a competent BSA ‘team’ comprising Designers, a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor.
Our staff have received appropriate briefing and are all undertaking additional assessment in accordance with their Institutes’ guidance, to ensure we can demonstrate our “competence” as the new regulations require. Consequently we are pleased to be able to offer clients the services of ‘BSA Designers’ and ‘BSA Principal Designers’ for standard projects.
For domestic projects, clients will now need to be particularly careful that their team is competent from the start, as these roles will usually automatically default to the consultants and contractors they employ. This may preclude a number of designers and contractors who are not able to show they understand the Building Safety Act.
These team arrangements reflect those of the CDM Regulations 2015 covering project Health & Safety, which many clients will be familiar with, but the BSA duties will now be additional to those for CDM. Studio Four has provided CDM Designer and CDM Principal Designer duties since 2015, and our staff will be pleased to discuss with clients the new roles required under the Building Safety Act.
More complex projects may also require additional site visits by consultants, and possibly see the resurgence of the traditional Clerk of Works role, in order to verify work is being carried out as per the drawings and specifications.
There is also an enhanced BSA process for ‘Higher-Risk Buildings’ (generally buildings above 18m where people can sleep), and we’re currently reviewing how best to prove our competence for this type of project, if and when the need arises.
