"Understanding the Implications of Major Changes to the Building Regulation Process"

05/04/2023

What are the changes? October 2023 saw a long overdue shake up in the construction industry. By bringing in changes to The Building Regulations the government hope to promote safer, more accountable, transparent, and sustainable practices. It all sounds less than thrilling but bear with me because it is significant.

How will that work? Amongst other things these revisions introduce defined Duty Holder Roles and responsibilities to those holding a Duty of Care within the construction industry. That is Client, Principal Designer (PD) and Principal Contractor (PC) are Duty Holder Roles (DH) and are assigned and recorded as part of a Building Regulation Application. So, there will, for the first time, be a paper trail of accountability.

Doesn’t that increase an individual’s liability? If you google the roles and responsibilities, you will see a veritable sea of words outlining the various responsibilities of each DH. Admittedly it looks a lot, and this has led industry members to fear increased liability. But as far as I can see these changes don’t take away, or add, to any of the usual civil responsibilities of designers or contractors to carry out their roles with due care and attention. What they do, is ensure that there is a record of those roles should any criminal negligence be suspected, and they give Building Control Bodies teeth to enforce and prosecute, which shockingly, wasn’t possible previously!

What’s the new process? To ensure we work in accordance with these revisions, as part of a Building Regulation Application, we will have to fill in additional paperwork which will assign the DH roles.

The assignation of the roles can be, and likely will be, fluid throughout the process so it’s important that there is clear communication around where individual DH roles begin, and end, and that the paperwork is in line with the individual DH intention.

What Does It Mean to Us on The Ground? My take away words are Compliance, Competence and Communication.

·       We are ALL; client, designer, and contractor; accountable for ensuring that work is designed and constructed so as to comply with building regulations.

·       Anyone who commissions building work, other than domestic clients, hold responsibility for ensuring those they engage to carry out any construction related task have the necessary competencies to carry out that duty.

·       Designers and Contractors must ensure that themselves or those they assign to a task have the necessary skills and experience for the task.

·       All duty holders must operate clear lines of communication. Sharing all information necessary for each member to carry out their role effectively.

·       Under the new regulations the client must assign both a PD and PC for the duration of the project. In reality that will be the agent on their behalf.

·       One person/body can take on multiple DH roles. Eg PC can also be the PD, Client can also be either or both PC/PD.

·       For domestic work the roles are generally automatically assumed, and the majority of the responsibilities passed to the PD and PC.

·       The individual to whom these roles are assigned can change through the design and construction phases

·       Building Control must be notified of who holds the DH roles at each stage and if/whenever a DH steps down it is in the DH interests to ensure the correct notification has been served.

·       In order to obtain the Completion Certificate all DH will have to sign and agree.

What are the real world implications of this to the work process? Honestly, we don’t really know yet! Its going to take a year or so to bed in.

As long as we operate with due care are what difference is this going to make? One of the most common scenarios we have seen in the small domestic sector up till now is that a Designer prepares planning and building regulations documentation and then hands the responsibility of construction of the works over. Having no further involvement. The designer holds the role of PD up to that point.  Under the new regime the builder would then take on the role of both PC and PD.

What’s been coming out of my discussions with industry members is that some contractors are unwilling/unable to take on the additional design role. And some designers are unwilling/able to continue their role through to completion of the works.

This seems to leave some holes in the process, and it may be that the designers’ role has to extend through the construction phase. I have checked with my Professional Indemnity insurer, and they are happy for me to act as PD through the whole process.

That will inevitably involve additional work, at the least a regular site visit will be necessary if I am to be familiar enough with the work to be able to react promptly to any changes.

Will this result in an additional expense to the client? I don’t think it will within the overall budget. Even where employing a Contractor willing to take on the PD role, the cost/time benefits of having me involved throughout the construction process can outweigh any perceived outlay. The end results are more cohesive and fitting the original goal, I can relieve some of the inevitable stress and offer my professional insight.

It will require a conversation where we all agree involvement and when any DH role ends Building Control need to be notified.

If you have any further questions, just ask and I will do my best to answer them?

Thank you for reading!