{"id":83806,"date":"2020-10-13T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T06:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=83806"},"modified":"2020-10-12T14:24:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T13:24:22","slug":"building-safety-bill-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/building-control-news\/building-safety-bill-3\/83806\/","title":{"rendered":"The draft Building Safety Bill: Major reform on its way"},"content":{"rendered":"

The draft Building Safety Bill is intended to introduce major reforms of the safety regime in the wake of the Hackitt Review. Sue Ryan, partner at law firm Gowling WLG<\/a>, examines the changes it puts forward<\/h2>\n

The draft Building Safety Bill<\/a> was published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) for pre-legislative review in July.<\/p>\n

Major reforms are signalled. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick described the bill as \u201ca significant milestone on our journey to fundamentally improving building safety and delivering real change that will keep people safer in their homes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following on from the recommendations of Dame Judith Hackitt<\/a> in her Independent Review of Building Regulations & Fire Safety, the draft bill will introduce more stringent rules for all residential buildings that are either 18m or more in height or more than six storeys tall.<\/p>\n

Overview<\/h3>\n

The intention of the new legislation is to ensure direct accountability throughout the \u201clife\u201d of a building, including design, construction and occupation.<\/p>\n

The bill applies to all buildings but many of the detailed provisions apply only to \u201chigher-risk buildings\u201d (HRBs). What constitutes an HRB will be defined and can be amended if necessary. At present, HRB is defined in the draft bill as (summarising) all multi-occupied residential buildings with a height of 18m or more, or more than six storeys (whichever is reached first).<\/p>\n

The provisions will apply to in England but some of the changes will also apply to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

At the same time as publishing the draft bill, the MHCLG issued a statement, Explained: The Draft Building Safety Bill<\/a>, emphasising the need for clarity and accountability in relation to HRBs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt each of these three stages [design, construction and occupation], it will be clear who is responsible for managing the potential risks and what is required to move to the next stage enabling a \u2018golden thread\u2019 of vital information about the building to be gathered over its lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cornerstone of the more stringent requirements will be a new national regulator for building safety: the Building Safety Regulator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Building Safety Regulator<\/h3>\n

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). The BSR will have two key objectives:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. To secure the safety of people in or about buildings; and<\/li>\n
  2. To improve the standard of buildings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In achieving these objectives, the BSR\u2019s functions and duties will include:<\/h4>\n