Building Safety Act 2022

70 Advice about definition of “higher-risk building” etc

(1) Subsections (2) to (6) apply if the Secretary of State asks the regulator for advice as to whether a specified description of building should be a higher-risk building for the purposes of this Part.

(2) The regulator must consider whether the following conditions are met—

(a) the first condition is that a building safety risk is greater for that description of buildings than it is for buildings that are not of that description;

(b) the second condition is that, if the risk materialised as regards a building of that description, it would have the potential to cause a major incident;

(c) the third condition is that buildings of that description should be higher-risk buildings for the purposes of this Part.

(3) The regulator must—

(a) if the conditions mentioned in subsection (2) are met, recommend to the Secretary of State that buildings of that description should be higher-risk buildings for the purposes of this Part;

(b) otherwise, recommend to the Secretary of State that buildings of that description should not be higher-risk buildings for those purposes.

(4) Where the regulator—

(a) makes a recommendation under subsection (3)(a), and

(b) considers that regulations under section 68 should be made modifying this Part as it applies in relation to buildings of the specified description,

it must make a recommendation to the Secretary of State to that effect.

(5) The regulator must give the Secretary of State a statement of its assessment of the issues it considered when deciding to make the recommendation under subsection (3) and any recommendation under subsection (4).

(6) If, following a recommendation under subsection (3)(a), the Secretary of State decides not to make regulations under section 65 giving effect to the recommendation, the Secretary of State must publish a document setting out—

(a) the regulator’s recommendation,

(b) the Secretary of State’s decision not to make the regulations, and

(c) the reasons for that decision.

(7) If requested, the regulator must provide advice to the Secretary of State as to whether higher-risk buildings of a specified description should cease to be higher-risk buildings for the purposes of this Part.

(8) In this section “specified” means specified by the Secretary of State in the request.