Building Safety
General introduction
In June 2017 a fire in a UK high-rise residential tower block claimed 72 lives. The fire highlighted major shortcomings in the fire prevention and protection of some high-rise residential buildings. Dame Judith Hackitt was commissioned to review the Building Regulations and how they related to fire safety. Her report made a series of recommendations to improve the fire safety of buildings.
The government committed to address these recommendations and in doing so they recognised that structural safety, or a failure to achieve it, could also lead to a large loss of life in such buildings.
Changes introduced so far include updating of both the regulations and the statutory guidance related to fire safety, the introduction of new processes for approving the construction and occupation of residential buildings, the setting of competency standards and tighter regulation of construction products.
The principles of the changes are set out in the primary legislation created by the Building Safety Act 2022. The supporting secondary legislation addressing implementing the act is being introduced in stages. Whilst the Hackitt Report addressed high risk residential buildings the effects of some of the changes will reach most parts of the construction industry.
Changes to Regulations and Approved Documents
In response to the fire the Building Regulations related to the combustibility of materials in the facades of buildings was updated. These changes have been adopted and expanded in the statutory guidance included in Approved Document B. There have been a number of further consultations and changes to the Approved Document which has and will continue to be updated frequently; users should always check they have the latest version.
The most significant change has been the banning of combustible materials within the external walls of buildings over 18m where people sleep. In the Approved Document this limit is reduced to 11m unless specific testing carried out. Non-combustible materials are defined as those that meet European Classification A2-s1, d0 or A1 (classified in accordance with the reaction to fire classification). The focus on limiting combustible materials and the continued revision of the Approved Document means that using non-combustible materials is the easiest way to satisfy the requirements.
Concrete and masonry are non-combustible and achieve a best fire classification of A1 in accordance with BS EN 13501. This classification is achieved without testing. This was confirmed in a European Commission Decision 96/603/EC as amended by Commission Decision 2000/605/EC, which specifies products that belong to reaction to fire Class A1 without the need for testing. The only caveat to this is that the concrete or masonry must contain less than 1% (by volume or weight) of organic material. The European commission decision was transferred over into UK Legislation after Brexit.
New processes for construction
Changes to the Planning Act and those introduced through the Building Safety Act introduce three gateways into the construction process of High Risk Residential buildings:
Further information on the process can be found on the Building Safety Regulator website.
The amount of information required by the building safety regulator to approve the design at Gateway 2 may require a level of design more developed than previous practice. To assist in understanding the information required a number of guidance documents have been prepared (see Gateway 2 links on right-hand side of this webpage).
As part of the gateways and during the operation of the building a “golden thread” of information must be maintained giving details of the buildings fire and structural safety provisions. Further information on this is given in a BRAC report.
During construction duties are given to the Principal Designer, the Principal Contractor and then during the occupation of the building the Accountable Person. Again, further guidance on these roles is given in the Building Safety Regulator website.
Competency
A key recommendation from the Hackitt review was the need for better competency of those working on high-risk residential buildings. To address this an overarching British Standard on competency for building safety has been published this is supported by PAS publications for the main duty holders as listed below. More specific requirements for designers and operatives working on high-risk residential buildings is likely to follow.
-
BS 8670:2024 – Competence frameworks for building safety - Core criteria. Code of practice. BS 8670 sets out core building safety competence criteria, including fire safety, structural safety and public health, to be included in sector-specific frameworks for individuals working in the built environment. It is applicable to buildings of all types and scales.
-
PAS 8671:2022 Built environment - Framework for competence of individual Principal Designers – Specification. The PAS specifies competence thresholds that individuals are expected to meet when delivering or managing the duty holder functions of the Principal Designer role, and additional competencies for working on higher-risk buildings (HRBs).
-
PAS 8672:2022 Built environment - Framework for competence of individual Principal Contractors – Specification. The PAS specifies competence requirements for the role of Principal Contractor. It also describes specific competencies common to all Principal Contractors and those which are additional for those undertaking the role on HRBs.
Access the PAS standards.
In addition to the above the Construction Products Association has proposed a construction products competency standard.
Construction products
A new regulator of construction products, the “National regulator: construction products” has been established by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).
The regulator is currently operating within pre-existing regulations, but its remit and its power will be significantly expanded once the related secondary legislation, from the Building Safety act, is implemented. This secondary legislation was the topic of a government green paper in 2025.
The act will create a class of product called a “safety critical product”. The details of how this designation will work with current Construction Product Regulations, CE and UKCA marking, and the effect of Brexit is unclear at the time of writing (September 2025).