BUILDINGS which are at high risk of fire should now be safer than ever with the establishment of The Building Safety Regulator which has now separated and stands apart from the Health & Safety Executive.
This body will now be a separate and distinct regulator around the planning and construction phase of any complex buildings which are high risk including tower blocks of flats, public buildings such as theatres, concert halls, schools and many more.
It’s generally seen as a positive move:
“This regulator will be involved in the planning and construction phase of complex buildings in a bid to prevent a situation like Grenfell happening again,” Andrew Wilkinson, of Swindon-based Secure Safety Solutions, said.
“The aim is to create a so-called ‘golden thread’ around planning and construction so that the regulator will know and will ensure recording of every detail and every material which goes into that building. Then if anything happened in the future, everything can be traced back to its origin. This includes all systems, materials, even down to fire doors.”
This decision to ‘single out’ construction from the rest of Health & Safety responsibilities was a key recommendation of the Grenfell Tower enquiry in response to the fire in which 72 people lost their lives in June 2017.
In the last few weeks (Jan) the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) was officially announced as a single body organisation which sets out to promotes higher standards and culture change in the built environment.
“Now the regulator is operating as a standalone body feels like a significant step in the wider building safety reforms that have come out of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry,” said Andrew. “I’ve seen the impacts of this tragedy on the health and safety sector first hand. Seeing the real-world changes taking place is important to our sector and it’s vital to see health and safety taking the forefront in the building industry in particular.”
Andrew has extensive experience supporting businesses across construction and other sectors with health, safety and fire risk management. He has long believed that the construction and building sector should be monitored independently.
“The intention seems to be to create a clearer and more focused regulatory structure for higher-risk buildings. From conversations within the industry, there has been ongoing concern around delays in parts of the regulatory approval process, particularly for higher-risk buildings,” continued Andrew.
The BSR will need to actively approve of all development processes for higher-risk buildings in relation to their health and safety regulations. This will include high rise buildings, schools, hospitals and many other public service buildings.
Andrew said: “For projects and remediation work, delays can create uncertainty, so improving the efficiency and clarity of the system will be important going forward. Strengthening leadership and bringing in more specialist capability should hopefully help improve decision-making and consistency in the building industry.”
For Andrew, who has run his own business for six years and was a health and safety specialist for 10 years at Heathrow Airport, he’s interested in what the impact will be
“The move to strengthen the Building Safety Regulator is an important step in improving oversight of higher-risk buildings. The key challenge now will be ensuring the system can deliver clearer and more efficient decisions while maintaining strong safety standards across the industry.
“For those responsible for managing higher-risk buildings, clarity from the regulator and consistent guidance will be essential in helping organisations understand their responsibilities and maintain safe buildings.”
For more information visit https://securesafetysolutions.co.uk/