‘Getting building safety case reports in place is the next hurdle for HRB developers and building owners on the building safety journey’

So, you have registered your higher-risk building (HRB), what now?

Well, the short answer is you need to get a building safety case report in place for each of your higher-risk buildings (HRBs).

The Building Safety Act secondary legislation, which was released in August 2023, gives more details of what is going to be expected from the building safety case report. The government have also last week issued a guide to preparing a building safety case report. Depending on what building information, plans and strategies you have in place will depend on how big the task of producing a building safety case is. If there is little information about a building, it could represent a lengthy or onerous task.

We have put together a guide to safety case reports and what you need to know.

What is a building safety case report?

A building safety case report essentially summarises the safety case for a higher-risk building. In doing this, it must identify the building’s safety risks and how they are being managed by the principal accountable person.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, a building safety risk is defined as a risk to the safety of persons in or about buildings arising from fire spread or structural failure.

The Act defines that for fire spread to be considered a ‘building safety risk’, it must have spread from one part of a building to another. It does not cover fire spread within a compartment, but rather spread from compartment to compartment or from outside the building to inside.

It should be clear that the act is not simply a regurgitation of the building information or operational and maintenance manual, but a report that interrogates and details out the building safety risks and the strategies in place for managing them, particularly in the event of an emergency.

Who needs to produce the safety case report?

If you are the principal accountable person for a HRB, you must prepare and make sure that the safety case reports for each building you are responsible for is in place. Any accountable persons for the building must also feed into a safety case report for a building with information and risk assessments.

When are safety case reports for HRBs required to be produced?

In the government’s latest guidance, they advise that the building safety case report should be prepared as soon as possible for HRBs which are already occupied or as soon as possible after a HRB become occupied. If you become principal accountable person for a new building, again you should produce a safety case report as soon as possible after you assume this responsibility.

For the construction of new HRBs, you must submit a copy of the safety case report for the building to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) as part of your application for a building assessment certificate. Without a building assessment certificate in place from the BSR, an HRB cannot be occupied.

This is not a one-time exercise either, the safety case report for a building must be regularly reviewed and updated, particularly if the building changes or the building safety risks change, including any improvement works carried out to manage building safety risks.

If you make any updates to a building safety case report, you must notify the BSR of the update or report revision and they may request for an updated version of the report to be submitted.

The BSR have suggested that they will start reviewing and enforcing any non-compliance on safety case reports from April 2024, however the official guidance is that they are in place as soon as possible after 1st October 2023.

What must the report detail?

The report should include:

• Details of the building accountable persons
• The responsible persons for the building, under the Fire Safety Order (FSO)
• The individuals and companies who prepared the report including their job roles, the skills, knowledge and experience which makes them competent to produce the report
• Which part of the report each individual and companies are responsible for
• ·Building description:

o?? A description of the building including a photograph and location map showing where it is

o?? Where the HRB is part of a wider development or has connected buildings, details of shared facilities

o?? Description of the nearby area, including nearby buildings and details of transport routes

• Detail of the risk assessments:

o?? The types of risk assessment techniques used in the building

o?? Details of who did the risk assessment(s) and demonstration of their competence to complete the assessment(s)

o?? The significant findings of the risk assessment(s)

o?? A summary of the outstanding actions or recommendations following the risk assessment and the plan to progress/resolve them

• For each risk found in the risk assessments, details of how they are being managed:

o?? The measures in place to prevent and mitigate building safety risks for the whole building

o?? How the measures work to prevent or mitigate risk

o?? Assessments that have been done which have identified building safety risks and what changes need to be made to mitigate the risks

o?? Conclusions from reports that have been done, for example, a structural inspection or intrusive survey reports

• An overview of the safety management systems in place for the building to manage building safety risks. This is a vital part of the report to show that risks are being properly and actively managed
• Detail must be given of the planned strategy for the building during an emergency particularly for a fire. You must explain you the strategy has been chosen for the building including how and why it works, for example, why the building strategy is a stay put policy in a fire because of the design of life safety systems and compartmentation in place controlling fire spread.
• If this strategy for emergencies changes, you must update this section and explain why it has changed, including any additional safety measures
• Any control measures that are found to be missing, for example, due to ongoing building works that effects the building’s safety must be detailed:

o?? Work that needs to be done to put the control measure back in place

o?? How it will be done and the timescale for completion

o?? Details of any temporary measures that are in place to manage works whilst these works are completed

What do you need to be able to produce a building safety case report?

There is a lot of work that needs to go into producing a safety case report for a building, including risk assessments, details of emergency plans and strategies, and technical design detail about the way the building functions.

To be able to produce a safety case report for a building, you need to have a safety case in place, which informs the production of the safety case report.

The safety case is certain building information which must be kept up to date by the principal accountable person and any other accountable persons for a building. The information which must be kept up to date about a building includes:

• The basic building information:

o?? The building’s height and the number of floors, residential units, and staircases

o?? When the building was built

o?? Relevant design codes or standards

o?? Building control body completion certificates (where available)

o?? Plans of the building

o?? information about shared facilities like car parks and a description of the wider area including nearby higher-risk buildings, schools, or care homes and transport routes like roads or railway tracks

• For newer buildings, the health and safety file
• Details of the building construction including how the building was built, methods and materials used:

o?? A description of the primary load-bearing system, for example, pre-cast planks on a steel frame

o?? A description of the stability system, for example, concrete shear walls

o?? The materials used on the outside of the building

o?? The roofing material

o?? The insulation material

o?? Access and escape routes

o?? A description of the fire compartmentation

• Detail of any building work or refurbishment works to the whole of or part of the building which takes place including:

o?? The completion certificate for the refurbishment work

o?? Updated plans of the building

o?? Specification or certification for important materials like replacement cladding and fire safety products

• Information about the profile of the residents and this may affect the building safety risks or emergency plans in particular residents who cannot evacuate without help or whose first language is not English
• Information about utilities:

o?? where the supply enters the building

o?? where and how it can be isolated

o?? the name and contact details of the supplier

o?? what the supplier’s responsibility for maintenance is

o?? who carries out the maintenance and repairs

o?? details of any nearby substations or communication equipment and if/how they impact the building safety

• Information about the building services:

o?? Building plans showing plant rooms and incoming supplies

o?? Building plans identifying pipes and cable routes

o?? Where cables, ducts and pipes penetrate through fire compartment barriers, that the fire stopping has been completed to an appropriate standard

• Record of all risk assessments for the building
• Information on structural safety of the building:

o?? All previous and new structural surveys or inspections

o?? How any materials or techniques will be managed with known challenges like large panel systems

o?? All existing and new programmes of inspection or monitoring relating to structural safety

Are you missing documents or information, or is it out of date?

If your building is not new it is highly likely that you will be missing at least some information or documents, or they are out of date and require an update.

First you should check for information on your building in archived paper-based storages, check planning authorities and building control records.

If you are still missing the information or documents after these checks, then you must detail how you have tried to locate the missing information and the steps you are taking to put the information in place or have further survey works done to get a record of the building information.

It is also possible that when you get your building information in place that the strategies or design of the building reveal new safety risks or that the building no longer reflects the design or strategy put in place previously. For example, you may have a building safety control in place such as a compartmentation line that is now not in place due to refurbishment or building works.

Further information and guides

·????? Government guide to safety cases

·????? Government guide to safety case reports

·????? Government guide to assessing and managing safety safety risks

We are producing lots of building safety case reports for our clients at present and helping them identify information gaps in their safety cases. If you need support producing your building safety case reports or have gaps in the information you need to produce one, get in touch with us here or contact our Managing Director Joshua Waterman .