The highly anticipated Building Safety Act 2022 officially came into force on 1 October, bringing with it significant change to how we approach, manage, and maintain our buildings for safety in the UK.

Highlighting the need to have the right processes, tools, and expertise in place to help you effectively manage the “golden thread” of digital information, so that your projects, existing buildings and estates meet the new requirements?

Here’s some tips on how we can help you embed safety design in your project from the outset:

1. Set Expectations

Identify leadership, roles and responsibilities, and establish health and safety standards, policies and objectives for your project. Carry out research on local benchmarks and data for health and safety and evaluate these to inform or generate your project KPIs.

2. Gather Information

Develop project scope, programme, site information, and identify important key stakeholders and the consultant team. Have consultant competencies in design and health and safety been checked? Have the roles and responsibilities of the consultants been clearly defined? Identify the nature of the local construction market and supply chains so your design and health and safety strategy can be tailored to suit local conditions.

3. Understand the legal context

Identify local legislation and codes for construction health and safety, who is the enforcing authority, and how they liaise with construction projects. Under the new Building Safety Act and associated regulations, it is now a requirement for clients to appoint a BSA Principal Designer and Principal Contractor on all projects in England. Refer to the UN Global Compact in relation to environment, health, safety and welfare and any local health and safety legislation and guidance.

Remember we are here to help. We have a long history of designing, delivering, and providing advice on the whole building lifecycle- from RIBA stage 0 to 7. Our team of highly experienced registered and chartered architects and technologists, certified technical experts and digital designers can provide designer services to meet the duties of the Building Safety Act (BSA), and also offer the new additional BSA Principal Designer role services, to deliver best practice on UK and international projects. Our specialist Safety Design Unit services can be applied on projects in the UK or internationally- helping you fulfil your role as a duty holder and effectively manage the safety design strategy for all stages of your project, from design through to construction and beyond.

If you’d like to find out more about our safety design services and how we might be able to help you, contact one of our advisors here.