BSR register represents “major momentum” for building safety

Building registration for such structures is a major step in a package of measures designed to ensure high-rise residential buildings are safe for residents and users. The registration information provided by duty holders will be used by the Building Safety Regulator to help the operation prioritise buildings for the building assessment certificate process from April next year.

‘Principal Accountable Persons’ were given until 1 October 2023 to register all high-rise residential buildings in England. It is now an offence to allow residents to occupy an unregistered building.

Chris Griffin-McTiernan, deputy chief inspector of buildings at the Building Safety Regulator, commented: “We are encouraged to see that, since the high-risk buildings registration service opened in April, the majority of Principal Accountable Persons have recognised their mandatory registration obligations. When the registration deadline was reached on 1 October, over 13,000 applications had been started.”

Griffin-McTiernan added: “We are now urgently reminding the minority of duty holders who have missed the deadline for completing their registration application that they could face significant sanctions, including prosecution. They should respond to their legal duty by acting now and registering to avoid action being taken against them.”

Detailed guidance

Detailed guidance for the owners and managers of high-rise buildings on their legal duties for registering their building, and information on how to complete the application process (including the key building information), has been available since April this year.

The Building Safety Regulator’s recent information dissemination programme involving upwards of 30 stakeholder sessions has focused on supporting people with completing their registration applications ready for the regulator to begin the building safety certification process.

Further guidance and support for building owners and managers is available on the ‘Making Buildings Safer’ campaign website.

Safety and performance standards

The Building Safety Regulator is established within the Building Safety Act 2022 as an independent regulator sitting within the Health and Safety Executive. It’s all about raising building safety and performance standards and overseeing a new and stringent regime for high-rise residential buildings, as well as overseeing the wider system for regulating safety and performance of all buildings and increasing the competence of relevant regulators and industry professionals alike.

The Health and Safety Executive, of course, is Britain’s national regulator for workplace Health and Safety. The organisation helps to prevent work-related deaths, injury and ill-health through regulatory actions that range from influencing behaviours across whole industry sectors through to targeted interventions on individual businesses. These activities are supported by globally recognised scientific expertise.

For its part, the Building Safety Act gained Royal Assent on 28 April 2022 and enshrines groundbreaking reforms. The Act of Parliament overhauls existing regulations and creates new powers that will “enable lasting change” right across the built environment.