THE NEW BUILDING SAFETY REGULATOR – CONTRACTORS WARNED THEY ‘MUST DEMONSTRATE’ SAFETY MEASURES
The article below will give you an overview of what the New Building Safety Regulators Chief Inspector Peter Baker has expressed about Contractors and how they must demonstrate safety measures. It will also highlight measures that will be coming into effect and what the expectations and plans are moving forward now that the new BSR has been introduced.
This information has been taken from the ‘Construction Line’ news article ‘Contractors warned they ‘must demonstrate’ safety measures to new regulator’.
The New head of the Building Safety Regulator, Peter Baker has said that contractors cannot rely on building control to be the ultimate judge of their safety. A new safety regime will be established under the Building Safety Bill, which is currently still going through parliament, therefore its final arrangement is yet to be set in law. It has been said that they will also be directly involved in the approval process for high-rise and high-risk residential buildings as well as providing an oversight of all building control bodies in England.
Peter Baker – Chief Building Inspector
In an interview that Peter Baker had following his appointment as head of the body that is being set up as part of government restructurings in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, Peter Baker has said contractors should start preparing for the new procedures that are likely to be in place in about 18 months’ time.
In this interview it was also said “One of the significant elements of the construction process under the new regime will be that it won’t just be based on minimum compliance with technical standards or Building Regulations. There will be an expectation that the building gets built to be safe for its intended use – it’s very much outcome-based rather than just ticking compliance with technical standards,”
Peter Baker also added “Currently there’s an over-reliance from contractors on the building control body being the final check and arbiter of the safety and quality. In the new regime, that will go. The principle of the new regime is whoever creates the risk, holds responsibility for managing it and the regulator will make sure that you’re managing the risk.”
The Chief Inspector has said that businesses should start to prepare for the new approach as soon as possible as well as the process to Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2015 which involve the in-depth planning of jobs for the health and safety risks, in addition to being able to show the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that this has been done in the correct way. Peter Baker has also said that firms will “need to be able to demonstrate to the Building Safety Regulator”. He has said that their staff and supply chain must be competent in knowing how to ensure the end-users of buildings will be safe and that they must ensure that the contractor has got all the right checks and balances throughout the construction process as well as being confident when the Building Safety Regulator visits that it will not be a nasty surprise!