Building Safety Act 2022 – Duty Holders

Following the enactment of the Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) last year we wanted to inform you about a recent development concerning a key principle of the Act; duty holders.

Part 3 of the Act aims to increase and improve accountability and competence within the built environment sector by introducing a duty holder regime. These duty holders have been identified pursuant to those under the Construction, Design and Management Regulations 2015 (“CDM Regulations”) and include the roles of client, principal designer, designers and principal contractor and contractors. Further, Part 2 of the Act provides that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in England so that the BSR operates as a division of the HSE. As part of its role, the BSR must assist and encourage duty holders with realising competence within the industry.

On 30 January 2023, the BSR launched a consultation targeting principal contractors or principal designers who are appointed by clients to undertake design work and building work in England. The consultation concerns a guidance document that the BSR have produced for those specific roles, which aims to briefly explain the roles of principal designer and principal contractor as well as outline how a duty holder in that role can demonstrate competence within the sector. The guidance document provides direction in relation to the relevant PAS documents, which were initially published by the British Standards Institute in July 2022. These specifications include PAS 8671:2022 Built environment – Framework for competence of individual Principal Designers and the PAS 8672:2022 Built environment – Framework for competence of individual Principal Contractors.

The BSR has invited views on the guidance document that can be found here. The consultation closes on 24 April 2023. For those interested in sharing their views on the advice document, the BSR survey can be found here.

Please do not hesitate to contact Jo Lewis or Michael Salau if you have any questions in relation to the duty holder guidance document, the duty holder responsibilities or general enquiries concerning the Building Safety Act 2022.