Following the enactment of the Building Safety Act in 2022 (BSA22), there was a significant increase in the responsibilities for those that own or are responsible for high-risk residential buildings in England. A high-risk residential building (HRRB) being either over 18m in height or 7 storeys, with 2 or more residential dwellings.
Each building now has a legally responsible person or persons known as the ‘Accountable Person’ (AP) and ‘Principal Accountable Person’ (PAP) who must ensure the maintenance and safety of their HRRB.
One of the biggest pieces of work to be undertaken by the PAP, is delivery of a building Safety Case Report (SCR). A SCR is a comprehensive document that outlines the safety risks associated with high-risk buildings and explains how those risks are being managed and mitigated. It supports compliance with the BSA22 regulations and assures the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) that potential risks are considered, and appropriate controls are in place.
The reality however, is that the PAP is very unlikely to write the SCR; its more likely this task will be passed to the building’s property manager, who in turn is likely to seek support from a competent person within the industry, such as a consultancy, fire or structural engineer.
So what does the legislation say about safety case reports?
BSA22 Section 85 mandates the PAP prepares a SCR, detailing safety risks and actions taken. Regular reviews are mandatory, with updates triggered by assessments or additional safety measures.
Section 83 requires the PAP assess building safety risks promptly after the building is occupied, or asap after registration, or at regular intervals as directed by the BSR. Section 84 focuses on risk management, necessitating steps to prevent and mitigate safety risks promptly.
Legal responsibility dictates that SCR are updated whenever actions taken impact fire or structural safety. Regular assessments of the building both ensure compliance, and support the PAPs obligations to maintain an updated SCR. So whenever the risk assessment of a building changes, through maintenance, remediation, change of use or for any other reason, the SCR must be updated.
Government guidance emphasizes maintaining comprehensive safety case information, covering building details, refurbishments, resident information, risk assessments, and safety measures to manage those risks. The guidance also provides specific information for assessing and managing risks and then preparing the SCR, using the safety case information. Black Boots Technology Limited | Heritage Exchange, South Lane, Elland, HX5 0HG| T: 07977 418 435 Registration No.: 15324230 | [email protected] | www.blackboots.uk
What really needs to go into a safety case report?
PAPs for high-risk residential buildings have an obligation to prepare and keep an SCR updated in support of the building’s safety. The SCR must include details of accountable persons, report compilers, building specifics, risk assessment techniques, risk management strategies, safety systems, evacuation plans, ongoing works, and building improvements. SCRs should then be regularly updated in line with changing safety risks, improvement initiatives or BSR requirements.
While no specific timeframe is mandated, PAPs are advised to start SCR preparations immediately after becoming the PAP, especially for buildings already occupied. Requests for SCRs are expected from April 2024 onwards, with an expected 4,500 expected to be requested in 2024.
To get started, the PAP will need to gather their safety case information, which is everything in the list above. The challenge here is that it’s very difficult to collate this information about one building, even harder if you manage a portfolio. Secondly, knowing whether what you have will meet the requirements for a safety case report, is also difficult.
However, let’s say for argument’s sake you have now collated all the information you need and stored it digitally and centrally somewhere, this is your safety case.
Now you can use this information to create your safety case report, for which you will need to create a template, encompassing all the requirements of the Building Safety Regulator. We have estimated that the process of writing the SCR after creating the template will take a minimum of 90 hours once the safety case is prepared, and that is per building!
What are the alternatives?
Simply summarising the minimum information needed to understand a PAP’s obligations for safety case reporting is significant. So, we know that many will opt to outsource the entire process to their trusted advisers, however we also know that this option is very expensive, tens of thousands of pounds per building.
This is why Black Boots (with support from industry leading fire and structural consultants), have created BB-SCR; an AI tool enabling you to upload your safety case information into an easy to complete web form (think comparison website form with documents to upload) and click SUBMIT!
BB-SCR then provides an initial assessment of the information and tells you whether it is sufficient to create a safety case report and if not, what is missing.
Once a full set of safety case information has been uploaded, BB-SCR generates a complete, but draft, safety case report in Microsoft Word format, aligned with the BSR requirements. It reduces the time and effort needed, ensuring compliance, and creating a repository for safety case information in support of the Golden Thread.
BB-SCR will:
- Provide an initial assessment of your safety case information, showing where it is deficient.
- Enable you to re-run this initial assessment as many times as required.
- Draft your safety case report for you, ensuring all the BSR requirements have been met.
- Provide the ability to easily update the safety case information as changes to the building are made or assessments updated and re-run your safety case report.
Black Boots Technology Limited | Heritage Exchange, South Lane, Elland, HX5 0HG| T: 07977 418 435 Registration No.: 15324230 | [email protected] | www.blackboots.uk
- Provide an online repository for all safety case information in support of the Golden Thread of Information
BB-SCR delivers value by:
- Assisting you in understanding what is needed in a compliant safety case.
- Reducing the time and effort taken to create a SCR (from many days to just minutes).
- Provides the assurance your safety case is always available and you can re-run a safety case report whenever it is needed for the BSR, stakeholders or residents.
In essence, BB-SCR empowers PAPs, property managers and their competent persons to create a safety case report seamlessly, ensuring a robust, compliant, and easily accessible document, including all safety case information.