Health Safety Executive
Building regulations and duties covered in this guide
This guide helps you understand your duties and competence requirements for design and building work under The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023. You have other duties under Building Regulations 2010 which are not covered in this guide.
This guide also covers additional duties under The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023, when the project involves:
- construction of a new higher-risk building
- work on an existing higher-risk building, including work that causes the building to stop being a higher-risk building
- work on an existing building that will make it a higher-risk building
A higher-risk building has at least:
- 7 storeys or is at least 18 metres high
- 2 residential units or is a hospital or a care home
A higher-risk building with at least 2 residential units must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) as a high-rise residential building before people live there.
Clients duties
Building and design work is done on behalf of the client, in relation to the clients business. A client can be an organisation or an individual. They will often be a developer or the building owner.
Managing the project
As the client, you must make suitable arrangements for planning, managing, and monitoring a project so it complies with all relevant requirements on completion.
You must:
- allocate enough time and resource for the building work to comply with building regulations
- establish, review, and maintain systems and arrangements to meet building regulations
- co-operate with others working on the project so they can comply with their duties
- enable co-operation between designers and contractors
You must provide building information to every designer and contractor working on the project. Building information relates to:
- the building work or design work
- the planning and management of the project
- any issues involving compliance with relevant requirements and how they have been addressed
Appointing designers and contractors
You must take all reasonable steps to appoint designers and contractors with the necessary competence or organisational capability to carry out their roles.
If there is more than one designer or contractor working on the project, you must appoint in writing a:
- principal designer to be in control of design work
- principal contractor to be in control of the building work
If the project has only one designer, they are the principal designer. If the project has only one contractor, they are the principal contractor.
Appointing an organisation as principal designer or principal contractor
You can appoint an organisation as the principal designer or principal contractor. The organisation must designate a competent individual from within the organisation to carry out the functions of the role. This does not make the individual the principal designer or principal contractor - the legal responsibilities remain with the organisation.
Higher-risk building work: clients duties
As the client, if your project involves higher-risk building work you must manage the application for building control approval. This includes providing certain documents and information to BSR, such as:
- drawings and plans
- a competence declaration
- a construction control plan
- a change control plan
- a mandatory occurrence reporting plan
Find out more about the documents and information you must provide to BSR in the guide managing building control approval for higher-risk buildings.
In addition to managing the building control approval application, you must also:
- make sure the principal designer and principal contractor have a mandatory occurrence reporting system in place
- allow for a periodic review of the building and design work to identify whether it is higher-risk building work
- provide information to designers and contractors so they are aware the project involves higher-risk building work
You must put in place a record of information about the building (also known as the golden thread). You must provide the information to relevant individuals and organisations, such as accountable persons.
When you, or the principal designer or principal contractor appoint an individual or organisation to carry out work, you must:
- keep a written record of the steps taken to make sure those appointed meet the competence requirements to carry out their duties
- provide details about the competence of those appointed in the competence declaration and the construction control plan when managing building control applications
Higher-risk building work: individuals or organisations with serious sanctions
As the client, you must tell BSR if an individual or organisation is appointed that has been issued with a serious sanction in the last 5 years. This covers appointments made by you, the principal designer or the principal contractor.
A serious sanction can be:
- a compliance notice which refers to a contravention or likely contravention of a requirement of Part A (structure) or Part B (fire safety) of Schedule 1 of the Building Act 1984
- a stop notice under the Building Act 1984
- convictions under the Building Act 1984, The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Building Safety Act 2022, or the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
A serious sanction can also be a report published under the Inquiries Act 2005 that finds an appointees actions, or inaction, resulted in one of the following:
- one or more deaths
- a likely contravention of any requirement under the Building Act 1984, The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Building Safety Act 2022, or the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
You must consider how any serious sanction and any resulting action by the individual or organisation affects their judgement or their capability to do the work.
You must provide information to BSR in the competence declaration and construction control plan about:
- why you consider the individual or organisation is competent to carry out their duties, despite having a serious sanction issued against them
- how you will mitigate the risks of appointing an individual or organisation with a serious sanction, such as checking their work more frequently
Clients duties: multiple clients
When there is more than one client for a project, the clients can nominate a lead client. All clients must confirm this in writing.
When there is a lead client, they must carry out all the clients duties for the project. The other clients, who are not the lead client, must:
- provide building information to every designer and contractor working on the project
- co-operate with others working on the project to enable them to comply with their duties
- allow for a periodic review of the building and design work to identify whether it is higher-risk building work
- provide information to designers and contractors so they are aware the project involves higher-risk building work
Domestic clients duties
A domestic client is any individual who has building work carried out on their home, or the home of a family member. The building work is done for domestic purposes, not for business purposes.
Managing the project
As the domestic client, you are in control of the project, which means you must:
- allocate enough time and resource for the building work to comply with building regulations
- appoint designers and contractors
- co-operate with anyone working on, or in relation to the project, so everyone involved can comply with their duties and functions
You must provide building information you have, or would be reasonable for you to get, to designers and contractors working on the project. This includes information about:
- known work that has been carried out