Building control

The Building Safety Act will help to ensure consistency across the building control profession and drive-up standards.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will independently oversee building control bodies (BCBs) and their professionals.

The new approach to building control oversight will apply to BCBs in:

• local authorities
• registered building control approvers (RBCAs)

It will cover:

• the performance of BCBs
• the competence of the professionals supporting the delivery of building control functions.

Learn more about the government’s proposals for the oversight of building control.

The Building Safety Act only applies to England.

The strategic context

HSE wants to set the strategic context for BSR’s oversight of BCBs and bring together the component parts of the new regulatory structure.

The new approach to building control oversight will help BCBs efficiently plan and deliver their functions to consistently high standards.

It intends to draw together different parts of the system by:

• clarifying roles and responsibilities, including those of duty holders, to ensure that buildings are safe and compliant
• setting out a risk-based approach to building control functions that BCBs and their professionals will be expected to adopt. This will reflect the risk-based approach the BSR will take as the building control authority for high-rise buildings
• linking to the code of conduct for registered building inspectors (RBIs) and professional conduct rules for RBCAs
• setting
  • Operational Standards Rules (the performance standards) for BCBs
  • key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • data reporting requirements and frequency
• setting out how BSR will regulate BCBs, and what BCBs can do if they disagree about decisions BSR makes

Building Safety Regulator’s role

The Building Safety Act will establish building control as a regulated profession, helping to create a unified profession working to a consistent set of standards. BSR's role will be to:

• support
• encourage
• advise
• hold BCBs and individual building control professionals to account

BSR will consult on the:

• Operational Standards Rules, including key performance indicators and the strategic context for building control oversight
• code of conduct and competence framework for RBIs
• professional conduct rules for RBCAs

Registers and registration criteria

Monitoring, assurance and enforcement