Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

9 In section 26 (Crown rights)—

(a) in subsection (1) after the words " Crown and " there shall be inserted the words " subject to the provisions of this section ";

(b) after subsection (2) there shall be inserted the following subsections—

“(2A) The building standards regulations shall, except in so far as they otherwise prescribe, apply to a Crown building as they would apply if the building were not a Crown building.

(2B) A Crown building to which the building standards regulations apply shall be constructed in accordance with those regulations.

(2C) Any extension to or alteration of a Crown building to which the building standards regulations apply or would apply on the extension or alteration of the building shall not cause the building as extended or altered, as a direct result of the extension or, as the case may be, the alteration—

(a) if it conformed to the building standards regulations immediately before the date of commencement of the operations, to fail to conform to them ; or

(b) if it failed to conform to the building standards regulations immediately before that date, to fail to conform to them to a greater degree than that to which it failed to conform immediately before that date ;

and any change of use of a Crown building shall not cause the building after the change of use to fail to conform to so much of the building standards regulations as will become applicable, or will apply more onerously, to the building by reason of the change of use.

(2D) Section 19A of this Act shall apply to a Crown building as it applies to a building other than a Crown building, but as if for subsection (2) there were substituted the following subsection:—

“(2) A breach to which this section applies is a failure to comply with subsection (2B) or (2C) of section 26 of this Act or a contravention of any provision of the building operations regulations”.

(2E) Without prejudice to any case to which proviso (a) to subsection (1) above is applicable, the Secretary of State shall have the like powers of dispensing with or relaxing the provisions of the building standards regulations in relation to a Crown building as he has under section 4(1) of this Act in relation to a building other than a Crown building ; and subsections (3), (4), (5), (5A) and (9) of the said section 4 shall apply for the purposes of this section as if—

(a) in subsection (4), the words " or, as the case maybe, the buildings authority " were omitted ;

(b) in subsection (5A), for the words from " an application " to the end there were substituted the words " the construction or change of use of a building, part or all of which is of the class to which the direction relates, was begun ";

(c) in subsection (9), the words "or section 4A(3) of this Act" were omitted.

(2F) Without prejudice to any case to which the said proviso is applicable, in the application of section 4B of this Act to a Crown building, subsection (10) shall have effect as if for the words from " an application " to the end there were substituted the words " the construction of a building, part or all of which is of the type to which the certificate relates, was begun.”.