What are the new competency requirements outlined in the Building Safety Act, how do they enhance the competency requirements established in the Building Regulation Act 2010 and how can you prepare your organisation to ensure that you meet the new competency requirements.
Introduction
The Building Safety Act competency requirements
The four key pillars of behaviour relating to the Building Safety Act
Individual and Organisational requirements
Not meeting the competency requirements
Conclusion
Summary
The building Safety Act 2022 was introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy and subsequent report by Dame Judith Hackitt’s looking at the Building Regulations and Fire Safety.
It is the most fundamental and important reform of regulation across the construction industry and residential building sector since the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974.
The Building Safety Act (BSA) has transformed the law relating to the design and construction of all buildings and the operation of higher risk residential buildings.
It will impact on the work of everyone in the construction sector and in time, may well evolve as a piece of legislation to encompass more than the residential and mixed-use residential buildings and higher risk buildings.
How duty holders will implement the new regulation and evidence successful implementation is still evolving and will be the subject of a separate future blogpost.
The Building Safety Act competency requirements
For the construction industry, associated industries and other duty holders, the Building Safety Act’s puts in place more substantially significant and stringent project oversight that goes beyond what has previously been laid down in the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2015 and the Building Regulation Act 2010.
It sets out clear competency requirements for all duty holders involved in the construction and development of projects that fall within the requirements of the act.
The competency requirements of the act can be broadly categorised as follows:
General competency requirements for all construction professionals
Specific duty holder competency requirements
General competency requirements
The general requirements can then be further broken down into:
Individuals
Organisations
With individuals responsible for the design and / or construction of buildings being required to demonstrate:
Respect for life, the law, the environment and public good.
Honesty and integrity
Accuracy and rigour
Direction, conduct and communication.
The four key pillars of behaviour relating to the Building Safety Act
Demonstration of a commitment to professionalism being achieved though:
Gaining professional qualifications in their chosen field of expertise
Completing accredited training courses
Demonstration of relevant work experience
An organisation or company must have the organisational ability to carry out:
Building work in accordance with a relevant requirement.
Design work, so that the building work arising from the design meets all relevant requirements.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have long been advocates for behavioural safety and the benefits of behavioural safety programs and we should expect future regulations and regulatory reform to include key pillars of behaviour or some variant of them.
Individual and Organisational requirements
What his means in practice.
For individuals:
You need to have the right skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours for the job.
Individuals must follow the rules and standards (relevant requirements).
Individuals must refuse work that doesn’t meet these standards.
Cooperation with others in the building process is mandatory at all stages.
Workers must not take on tasks beyond their abilities and seek assistance when required.
For organisations:
You must show that your organisation has the capability to carry out the work according to the stipulations of the regulation.
You must ensure you have proper policies, procedures and resources to confirm workers comply with regulations and that those in training receive appropriate supervision whilst developing their competency.
Individuals under the control of the organisation who are in training to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours are appropriately supervised.
All organisations should carefully consider how they will implement and evidence behavioural competency which for organisations, will be a new consideration, having traditionally only considered skills, knowledge, experience and training.
Not meeting the competency requirements
Competency is a legal requirement under the Building Safety Act and if an individual or organisation doesn’t meet the competency requirements of the Act, they can potentially be held accountable and be subject to prosecution, fines, sentencing and significant reputational damage.
Organisations and individuals have a duty to monitor and manage their own competency and if they cease to be competent, the organisation or individual has a duty to inform those employing their services that they are no longer comply with the competency requirements of the Building Safety Act.
How this will play out over time remines to be seen. However, it is reasonable to conclude that in time, the building safety regulator will bring look to bring about a test case on the subject of competency to clarify the Building Safety Act definition of competency and satisfy the wider public interest in fire safety following the Grenfell tragedy.
Conclusion
The Building Safety Act is a significant and critical step in enhancing building safety in the UK and in particular, higher risk buildings, residential buildings and mixed use residential buildings.
Writing in critical competency requirements and supply chain management obligations into law is a considerable development and all those involved in the design and delivery of constriction projects should take note and assess their organisational competency. It builds in the commitment to competency that was outlined in the Building Regulation Act 2010 which mainly looked at construction industry contractors and the work undertaken on sites.
Now with wider scope, covers clients, principal designers, designers, principal contractors, contractors and suppliers.
The legislation now sets forth stringent requirements for all parties involved in building work.
The Building Safety Act leaves no doubt: Competence is an ongoing pledge to uphold safety and regulatory requirements throughout all building project stages.
Competence is not only key – it’s the law
Summary
The purpose of this introductory blog is to introduce the Building Safety Act (BSA) as a topic for future blogposts, look at the competency requirements within the act and build on this topic by looking at the following areas in future blog posts:
The role of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and enforcement of the act.
The specific requirements of each duty holder under BSA
Which buildings are subject to the requirements of BSA
Accountable persons, Principal Accountable Persons and interested parties under BSA
Publicly Available Specification (PAS) documents:
PAS 8671 – Company – Principal Designer
PAS 8672 – Competency – Principal Contractors
PAS 8673 – The competency standard
The golden thread of information and how to apply its requirements
The Gateways - the new safety checkpoints
Multi-tier responsibilities under the Building Safety Act
Setting the supply chain standard
The requirements of the new Building Safety Act are extensive, but it need not be daunting.
In the forthcoming blogs highlighted above, we will break down the Building Safety Act into manageable chunks of information and look at each part in its own merit, before collectively looking at the sum of the parts that make up the act as a whole.
Yorkshire Health and Safety can assist you in the successful delivery of all your projects from concept to completion.
At Yorkshire Health and Safety, we build strong relationships with clients based on communication, collaboration, commitment, trust and aligning with your key safety performance goals.
With over 30 years’ experience delivering successful projects for clients and working with clients’ principal contractors, we know the challenges that come with delivering successful projects, be it commercial, industrial, construction manufacturing, housebuilding, refurbishment, shopfitting and office interiors.
If you require further assistance with any of the topics raised in this post or assistance with current or future projects, please get in touch.
Yorkshire Health and Safety