Building Safety- Act published and Fire Safety Act commenced
News
- Building safety
19 May 2022
The very large Building Safety Act, consisting of six parts and over 265 pages, has been published, two weeks after receiving Royal Assent on 28 April.
More than 300 amendments were accepted into the legislation during its passage through parliament and so the Act is very different to the Bill that entered parliament. The most significant change for FMs was the removal of the Duty to appoint a building safety manager, while at the same time, the Part 4 duties in occupation are still needed to be met.
The headline issues part-by-part are that the Act:
- sets up a new Building Safety Regulator
- regulates the Building Control profession
- introduces the new regulatory regime of higher risk buildings (but it impacts upon a much wider spectrum of buildings)
- creates a new regime designed to protect residents
- covers remediation of certain existing defects including the right of prohibition for prescribed persons
- sets up the New Homes Ombudsman Scheme
- sets up new requirements for construction products
- amends the Fire Safety Order (including competence requirements)
- amends the Architects Registration Act.
Over the course of the next few years, more than 30 pieces of secondary legislation are expected to implement the mammoth Act. While 2024 is marked as a date for full implementation, given its trajectory to date and a general election due to take place in 2024, it will not be surprising to anyone if this ambitious timescale is not met, especially given that some of the policy is still under development.
The Life Safety Working Group will consider the full Act and consider how to take forward further implementation work.
The full text of the Building Safety Act can be found here.
In addition to the Building Safety Act being published, the Fire Safety Act 2021 has been commenced. This means that from now on, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and its required fire risk assessments, explicitly includes domestic premises, including external walls, front doors, and so on. You can find the Statutory Instrument implementing the Act here, while the act can be found here.
Background reading: Building Safety Update: What’s next?