The Building Safety Act 2022

You can find the latest version of the Building Safety Act on GOV.UK.

You can find a summary of the latest changes below.

Summary of the changes from 1 October 2023

The Building Safety Act 2022 has brought changes in the Building Regulations and applications to Building Control. These changes include:

•              additional information for applications to Building Control.

•              definition of commencement of works.

•              additional information being required before a completion certificate can be released.

This is to make sure that at each stage in a building project, duty holders are identified, and roles, responsibilities and expectations are clear.

Duty holder

A duty holder can be an organisation or an individual, and a duty holder can carry out the role of more than one duty holder, provided they have the skills, knowledge, experience and (if an organisation) the organisational capability and competence necessary to carry out those roles.

Below are the duty holder roles and definitions, along with their main duties.

Commercial client

These are organisations or individuals for whom a construction project is carried out that is done as part of a business.

 A commercial client must:

•              Make suitable arrangements for planning, managing, and monitoring a project, including the allocation of sufficient time and resource, to deliver compliance with building regulations. In practice, this means appointing the right people, with the right competencies (the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours or organisational capability) for the work and ensuring those they appoint have systems in place to ensure compliance with building regulations. Where there are several firms working on different aspects of the project, the client will need to appoint a principal designer to be in control of design work and a principal contractor to be in control of the building work.

•              Provide building information to every designer and contractor on the project and have arrangements to ensure information is provided to designers and contractors to make them aware that the project. This includes any existing or proposed higher-risk building work

•              Cooperate and share information with other relevant duty holder

Domestic client

A domestic client is anyone who has construction work carried out for them that is not done in connection with a business. This is usually work done on their own home, or the home of a family member.

Where there are several firms working on different aspects of the project, a domestic client should appoint a principal designer to be in control of design work and a principal contractor to be in control of the building work. If a domestic client does not appoint either a principal designer or principal contractor, then the designer in control of the design phase of the project is the principal designer and the contractor in control of the construction phase of the project is the principal contractor.

A domestic client must:

•              Provide building information that they have, or it would be reasonable for them to obtain, to designers and contractors working on the project.

•              Cooperate with anyone working on or in relation to the project to the extent necessary to enable them to comply with their duties or functions.

•              Where there is a domestic client, the declaration can be signed by the principal contractor.

Principal designer

This is a designer appointed by the client in projects involving more than one contractor. They can be an organisation or an individual with sufficient knowledge, experience, and ability to carry out the role.

A principal designer must:

•              Plan, manage and monitor the design work during the design phase.

•              Take all reasonable steps to make sure the design work carried out by them and anyone under their control is planned, managed, and monitored so that the design is such that, if built, it would comply with all relevant requirements of the building regulations.

•              Make sure that they, and all those working on the project, co-operate, communicate and co-ordinate their work with the client, the principal contractor, and other designers and contractors.

•              Liaise with the principal contractor and share information relevant to the building work.

•              Assist the client in providing information to others.

Principal contractor

This is a contractor appointed by the client to coordinate the construction phase of a project where it involves more than one contractor.

A principal contractor must:

•              Plan, manage and monitor the design work during the building work.

•              Cooperate with the client, the principal designer, and other designers and contractors to the extent necessary to ensure that the work complies with all relevant requirements of the building regulations.

•              Make sure that they, and all those working on the project, co-operate, communicate and co-ordinate their work with the client, the principal designer, and other designers and contractors.

•              Liaise with the Principal Designer and share information relevant to the building work.

•              Assist the client in providing information to others.