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We can help you navigate the Building Safety Act regulations

Everyone in the construction supply chain has a responsibility to demonstrate competence with the Building Safety Act. Our BSA guidance can help you evidence your compliance.

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What is the Building Safety Act (BSA)?

The Building Safety Act (BSA) is a critical reform aimed at improving building safety standards across the construction industry. It was prompted by the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 and seeks to enhance accountability in designing, constructing, and maintaining buildings, especially those classified as higher-risk structures. The Building Safety Act legislation lays the groundwork for a safer future by addressing longstanding issues related to building safety throughout a structure’s life cycle.

Building Safety Act: What is BSA - Construction

Kizzy Augustin - Health, Safety, Fire and Environment Partner at Michon de Reya

“The Building Safety Act is an essential reform of building safety, impacting everyone throughout the construction industry. It’s encouraging and commendable to see a business like Constructionline- operating at the very heart of the supply chain industry – providing clear guidance on the essential information companies need to be aware of, identifying the steps that need to be taken to remain compliant.”

Kizzy Augustin – Health, Safety, Fire and Environment Partner at Mischon de Reya

What's your responsibilities under the Building Safety Act?

The Building Safety Act is the biggest change to building safety in a generation. As a construction leader, you want to be clear about your responsibilities according to the Building Safety Act secondary legislation, to champion best practice in terms of duty holder responsibilities, and ensure all parties throughout your supply chain are similarly committed to fulfilling their obligations.

But with limited time and resources available, it may feel overwhelming trying to get to grips with Building Safety Act duty holders and their responsibilities.

Read on to discover exactly what your duty holder responsibilities are with our BSA guidance for the construction industry.

Role of the Client

In order to align with the Building Safety Act regulations it’s important to make suitable arrangements for planning, managing and monitoring their project. In practice, this means hiring the right people, with the right competencies, making sure reasonable steps have been taken to validate this.
If multiple entities are involved on a project, a principal designer and principal contractor must be appointed, ensuring they have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to fulfil their roles.
Provide relevant building information to every contractor and designer involved on a project, as soon as possible.
Advise if the work relates to an existing or proposed higher-risk building.
If the work relates to a higher-risk building, ask if the firms it plans to appoint as either principal contractor or principal designer have a serious sanction levelled against them in the last five years, and confirm whether the issues raised have been appropriately addressed.

Role of Principal Contractors

Plan, manage and monitor building work during the construction phase of the project.
Coordinate building matters so that the construction work complies with all relevant requirements.
Ensure all contractors and any other person involved on the project cooperate with the client, the principal designer, the principal contractor and each other – as well as any successors in a role.
Liaise with the principal designer and share all relevant information.
Review and regard comments from the principal designer that relate to complying with the relevant requirements.
If requested, assist the client in providing information to other designers and contractors.
No more than 28 days after the end of their appointment, provide a document explaining how they fulfilled the above duties
If a replacement principal contractor is appointed, they must review the previous arrangements to ensure building work complies with regulations and building safety act guidance and regulations.

Role of Principal Designers

Plan, manage and monitor design work
Cooperate, coordinate and communicate with all duty holders to ensure the design work, if built, complies with building regulations and Building Safety Act guidance
Liaise with the principal contractor and share any information relevant to the planning, management and monitoring of the building work, and the coordination of the building and design work so that it complies with all relevant requirements
Review and regard all comments from the principal contractor
If requested, assist the client in providing information to other designers and contractors
No more than 28 days after the end of their appointment, provide a document explaining the arrangement put in place to fulfil their duties
If a replacement principal designer is appointed, they must review the previous arrangements to ensure building work complies with Building Safety Act regulations

Role of Contractors and Designers

To not start building or design work unless satisfied that the client is aware of the duties owed by the client under all relevant requirements.
Ensure building or design work complies with all relevant requirements and Building Safety Act regulations. Contractors must also provide each worker under their control with the appropriate supervision, instructions and information to ensure that all building work undertaken meets the relevant demands.
Provide sufficient information about the work to assist the client and other contractors and designers so they can comply with all the relevant requirements.
If carrying out only part of the building or design work, they must consider other work that might directly impact the building or design work, and report any concerns to either the principal contractor or principal designer as appropriate.
If requested, provide advice to either the principal contractor, principal designer or client on whether any work is higher-risk building work.

How can we help you with the Building Safety Act?

BSA Assessments – two question sets

Developed in partnership with key industry partners, the BSA Assessments encompass two primary areas: standard construction and higher-risk buildings.

These bring together components from our established industry question sets, alongside a concise selection of BSA-specific queries. This approach streamlines the assessment process, minimising time and effort while ensuring alignment with BSA construction standards (BSI Flex 8670 v3).

Our Building Safety Act Assessment are available for Constructionline Gold and Platinum members at no extra cost.

Find out more about BSA Assessments

Building Safety Act Question Set - Constructionline

BSA Radar – supply chain compliance

Designed for principal contractors and principal designers, our Building Safety Act Radar provides you with a one-click view of your supply chain’s compliance with Building Safety Act Regulations, identifying suppliers that may have serious sanctions or areas for you to review.

Whether it’s at a project level or across your entire construction supply chain, the BSA Radar gives you a real-time view of your construction supply chain in line with our new BSA Assessments, so you can easily view your supply chain compliance against Standards relating to the Building Safety Act, such as BSI Flex 8670 v3.

Free to use for our paying Buyers, our BSA Radar will save you and your team time and effort.

Find out more on BSA Radar

Have you visited our Building Safety Act Resources page yet?

Our BSA resources page is a comprehensive hub for BSA guidance through webinars, whitepapers and blogs dedicated to understanding and navigating the complexities of the Building Safety Act regulations in the construction industry.

Find out more

Are you new to Constructionline?

If you are new to Constructionline, you will need to sign up as a Constructionline Gold or Platinum member to gain access to the Building Safety Act Assessments. Fill out the form below, and we’ll help get you started.

Navigating The Building Safety Act FAQs

What do the Building Safety Act Regulations mean for the construction industry?

The Building Safety Act regulations (or BSA) come under the 2022 Act, introduced after the 2017 Grenfell tragedy to ensure enhanced building safety and construction. It means parties throughout the construction supply chain are committed to fulfilling their obligations, but most importantly, understand their responsibilities. This includes duty holders such as the client, principal contractor, principal designers, and contractors and designers. Ultimately, the Building Safety Act regulations help to create a safer future for the built environment.

How can I ensure compliance with the Building Safety Act regulations?

Under the Building Safety Act, it goes beyond ‘being compliant’. It’s about taking this great opportunity to review all of your processes and behaviours in line with the new Building Safety Act regulations. You may think the BSA doesn’t apply to you: it may be correct that your exposure to risk is less than for other sub-contractors – that’s up to you to decide. However, to gain access to more projects, it’s encouraged that you take this opportunity to stop, think and review. Identify any gaps and take action.

Our Building Safety Act Assessments help you to do just that, which are included in our Gold and Platinum memberships. Get in touch to find out more or upgrade. You can also check out our free resources page to get the latest BSA guidance and navigate the Building Safety Act legislation.

Which types of buildings are affected by the Building Safety Act?

The Building Safety Act applies to all new buildings, including additional requirements for those classed as higher-risk buildings (for example, non-buildings: not roads, railways etc) and standard construction: both are covered by our BSA Assessments.

In England, higher-risk buildings are classed as being at least 18m in height, or at least 7 storeys high, and contain at least 2 residential units, including hospitals, care homes and student accommodation. It excludes hotels, prisons and military accommodation.

The Building Safety Act extends to standard construction, making sure there is a golden thread of information (as part of the HSE), to keep both building and people safe, now and in the future. Whilst the information driven by our BSA Assessments contributes to the golden thread, please note that Constructionline does not supply digital storage solutions. We help buyers source information to show they’ve done their due diligence to assess suppliers.

Who is responsible for compliance with the Building Safety Act?

Due to the Building Safety Act 2022, it now makes responsibilities and accountability clearer for parties involved, otherwise called duty holders.

Whilst general competence applies to everyone throughout the construction supply chain, the client is responsible for making suitable arrangements for planning, monitoring and managing a project. Meanwhile, the principal contractor is responsible for planning, monitoring and managing the building work.

Throughout the project, responsibilities and considerations must be considered at each tier. The responsibilities of each duty holder are detailed further in our Building Safety Act Essential Guide.

From then on, an accountable person is named (i.e. landlord, management company, freeholder or estate owner, etc.): they own or have a legal obligation to repair common parts of a building, such as the structure and exterior of a building, corridors, lobbies and staircases.

Tools such as BSA Radar scan buyers’ supply chains to find BSA-assessed suppliers to work with on their construction projects: they can save time, money and resources and assist with BSA risk management where they’d instead be checking each supplier’s compliance.