Why the Building Safety Act exists
The Building Safety Act 2022 is the legislative response to the Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017, in which 72 people died. The subsequent Hackitt Review identified systemic failures in the way building safety was managed, documented, and evidenced across the construction industry — failures embedded not in one building but in the broader regulatory framework.
The Act came into full force on 1 October 2023. It applies to all projects subject to Building Regulations in England and represents the most significant change to the regulatory landscape for designers since the Building Act 1984.
This is not only a fire safety regulation. The Building Safety Act applies to all aspects of Building Regulations compliance and affects every notifiable project — not only Higher-Risk Buildings.
The three-Gateway approval process — Higher-Risk Buildings
The dutyholder regime
The most immediately significant change for building designers is the introduction of statutory dutyholder roles on all notifiable projects. Three roles are now mandatory on every notifiable project:
- Client — must appoint the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor and ensure they are competent to fulfil their duties.
- Building Regulations Principal Designer (BRPD) — must plan, manage, and monitor design work to ensure compliance with Building Regulations throughout the design phase.
- Principal Contractor — must plan, manage, and monitor the construction work for compliance.
What counts as a notifiable project? Any project requiring full plans or building notice submission to a building control body. In practice, almost all significant construction, extension, conversion, or material change of use is notifiable. The dutyholder regime applies to all of these — not only Higher-Risk Buildings.
The Principal Designer role
The Building Regulations Principal Designer is a named legal dutyholder with personal responsibility for compliance across the design team. The role is not limited to architects — it can be held by any suitably competent building design professional, including structural engineers, building services engineers, project managers, specialist consultants, and design-and-build contractors with in-house design expertise. What matters is demonstrated competence in Building Regulations compliance, not professional title.
Personal liability. Failure to competently discharge BRPD duties can result in a custodial sentence of up to two years under the Building Safety Act 2022. This is not a corporate liability — it attaches to the named individual.
BRPD compliance responsibility across RIBA Work Stages
What has changed in practice
Before the Building Safety Act, many practices relied on Building Control to identify and resolve compliance issues during the application process. The Act explicitly removes this option. Compliance must be demonstrated before submission. For building designers this means:
- Compliance checking must begin at Stage 2, not at Stage 4 or planning application.
- A structured, dated record of compliance decisions must be maintained throughout design.
- At each Gateway submission, that record must be presented in a form the Building Safety Regulator can assess.
- Design changes during construction must be categorised and managed through a change control plan.
Higher-Risk Buildings — additional requirements
A building is a Higher-Risk Building if it is:
- Residential and 7 or more storeys in height, or 18 metres or more in height; or
- A hospital or care home of any height.
For HRBs, the BRPD has additional duties: managing the Golden Thread of information, operating a change control plan, and maintaining a mandatory occurrence reporting system. Construction cannot commence without Building Safety Regulator approval at Gateway 2.
Competence and professional indemnity
- Document the competence basis on which every BRPD appointment is accepted before accepting it.
- Confirm professional indemnity insurance explicitly covers the BRPD role — many policies do not include it automatically.
- Engage CPD specifically addressing Building Safety Act dutyholder obligations.
- Establish a structured, digital workflow for BRPD compliance documentation.
Which Building Regulations apply to your project?
Ask Jordi is free. Tell us about your building — use class, height, sprinkler provision — and get an instant relevant/not-relevant schedule of applicable Parts. No account required.