Module 3 · Health, Law and Duty
3.5 The Building Safety Act and the Wider Regime
8 min read
The Building Safety Act is usually discussed in terms of cladding and tall buildings, and a damp specialist can reasonably wonder what it has to do with them. Three parts do: the duty-holder structure, the competence requirement, and the golden thread of information. All three change what is expected of a professional producing information about a building — and the second one applies to you whatever kind of building you are in.
Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Describe the duty-holder roles the regime creates and where a surveyor sits.
- Explain the competence requirement and what it means for accepting instructions.
- Describe the golden thread and how a damp report becomes part of it.
- Recognise when a building falls into the higher-risk regime and what changes.
Key terms
- Higher-risk building
- A building meeting the statutory height and use criteria, subject to the additional regime including the Building Safety Regulator and the gateway process.
- Accountable Person
- The dutyholder responsible for a higher-risk building in occupation, required to assess and manage building safety risks.
- Golden thread
- The requirement that accurate building information is created, kept current and available to those who need it, throughout a building's life.
- Competence
- The statutory requirement that those carrying out work have the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for it — and must not accept work beyond them.
Read the rest of Health, Law and Duty
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