Safety case: what you'll need to know and do

The Building Safety Act introduces a set of new roles and responsibilities for people who manage occupied, high-rise residential buildings.

Although the Act has become law, the duties it describes for existing occupied high-rise residential buildings have not come into force yet. Registration of existing buildings is expected to begin in April 2023, with the Building Assessment Certificate process expected to begin in April 2024.

We are providing the information in the links below to help those who will have duties under the Act to get ready for the new regime and manage risks effectively.

If you manage a high-rise residential building, you’ll need to take all reasonable steps to:

• prevent any building safety incidents
• reduce the severity of an incident, should one occur

The Act defines a building safety risk as the spread of fire, or structural failure. The spread of fire includes the spread of all forms of combustion, for example smoke, fumes, and heat.

In the Act, those responsible for occupied, high-rise residential buildings will be required to:

• register their building with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR)
• perform a building safety risk assessment
• introduce measures to manage building safety risks
• prepare a safety case report for their building to give to BSR on request

BSR will be publishing case studies and examples of proportionate responses to common situations as we develop the new regime.

The following series of pages will help you to prepare for the new regime. They contain information and advice on what the Building Safety Regulator is likely to need in any submission.

Safety case information in more detail

1. Building Information
2. Identifying building safety risks
3. Risk prevention and protection information
4. Safety Management Systems
5. Safety case report