Why Was the Building Safety Act 2022 Created?
The Building Safety Act 2022 is the most significant piece of building and fire safety legislation in a generation. It was introduced in direct response to the Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017, which claimed 72 lives and exposed fundamental failures in the design, construction, management, and oversight of high-rise residential buildings in the UK. The Act implements many of the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt's Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety (2018), creating an end-to-end regulatory framework for the safety of higher-risk buildings from design and construction through to ongoing occupation.
What Does the Act Create?
- The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) — an independent body within the Health and Safety Executive, responsible for overseeing the safety and standards of all buildings and directly regulating higher-risk buildings throughout their lifecycle
- A new regulatory gateway system for higher-risk buildings — three "gateway points" at which approval must be obtained before design, construction, and occupation can proceed
- The Principal Accountable Person (PAP) — the dutyholder ultimately responsible for the fire and structural safety of the common parts of a higher-risk building during its occupation
- The Accountable Person (AP) — any person with a legal obligation to maintain any part of a higher-risk building, who must cooperate with the PAP
- A Building Safety Register — a public register of all higher-risk buildings, which must be registered before occupation can legally continue
- Extended limitation periods — giving residents far longer to bring legal claims against developers, contractors, and manufacturers for building safety defects
What Is a Higher-Risk Building?
For the purposes of the Building Safety Act, a higher-risk building (HRB) is a building in England that is 18 metres or more in height, or has 7 or more storeys, and contains at least two residential units. Buildings used as hospitals or care homes are treated separately. The 18-metre threshold aligns broadly with a building of 6 storeys, above which simultaneous evacuation of all floors may not be safely achievable without dedicated infrastructure.
Duties on Accountable Persons
Accountable Persons must assess the fire and structural safety risks of the parts of the building for which they are responsible, take reasonable steps to manage those risks, and prepare and maintain a safety case report — a structured document demonstrating how they are identifying and managing building safety risks. For the Principal Accountable Person, this includes establishing a residents' engagement strategy and a complaints process for building safety matters.
