Annex C - Glossary
| Term | Notes |
|---|---|
| Accountable Person | The dutyholder during a building’s occupation. If an occupied higher-risk residential building has just one Accountable Person, they will automatically become the Principal Accountable Person for that building Where there are two or more Accountable Persons for a building, provisions are in place to determine that one of them will be assigned as the Principal Accountable Person with overall responsibility for meeting specific statutory obligations for the whole building. |
| Approved Documents | Guidance detailing ways to meet building regulations. These contain guidance on the standard expected of materials and building work in order to comply with the building regulations and practical examples and solutions on how to achieve compliance for some of the more common building situations. |
| Approved Inspector | Old system name for a private sector building control body. Under this Act they are now called a registered building control approver. |
| Building Advisory Committee | New expert advisory committee set up by the Building Safety Regulator to provide advice and information to the Building Safety Regulator in relation to its functions. |
| Building Assessment Certificate | A certificate that an Accountable Person must apply for and the Building Safety Regulator will provide if it is satisfied that the Accountable Person is meeting the relevant statutory obligations placed on them. |
| Building control | A statutory process of ensuring that building work complies with building regulations’ requirements including by assessing plans for building work and building work on site. |
| Building control activities | Activities, such as site inspections, carried out by building control bodies to check that the requirements of the building regulations are met in relation to building work. The Act creates a power to prescribe activities so that building control bodies have to use a registered building inspector to carry them out. |
| Building control authority | A generic name used for local authorities and the Building Safety Regulator in situations where either may be responsible for Building Act 1984 matters or checking compliance with Building Regulations requirements. |
| Building control body | A general term for organisations that check that the requirements of the building regulations are met in relation to building work. In the current system these are local authorities and Approved Inspectors. In the reformed system it will be local authorities, the Building Safety Regulator, and registered building control approvers. |
| Building control functions | Functions exercised by building control bodies at decision points in the building control process. Examples include the issuing of final or completion certificates. The Act creates a power to prescribe functions so that building control bodies have to obtain and consider the advice of a registered building inspector before carrying them out. |
| Building regulations | Technical and procedural requirements which persons undertaking building work must meet. |
| Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) | Advisory committee established under (current) section 14 Building Act 1984 for the purpose of advising the Secretary of State on the exercise of the Secretary of State’s power to make building regulations, and on other subjects connected with building regulations. This committee is set to be abolished under section 9 of the Building Safety Act and be replaced by the Building Advisory Committee. |
| Building Safety Costs | The Building Safety Costs are an identifiable part of the service charge and are narrowly defined in the Bill as costs incurred in connection with "relevant building safety measures". Leaseholders with leases longer than seven years, regardless of whether they are an owner-occupier or renting to a tenant, in a high-rise multi-occupied building of at least 18m or at least seven storeys are liable to pay these costs. The Accountable Person will be required to provide leaseholders with information about the building safety costs, together with a summary of the leaseholders’ rights and obligations. The Act sets out limitations on what can be charged. |
| Building Safety Regulator | The Building Safety Regulator will be set up within the Health and Safety Executive, and make buildings safer through the implementation and enforcement of the new more stringent regulatory regime for buildings in scope, stronger oversight of the safety and performance of all buildings, and assisting and encouraging competence among the built environment industry, and registered building inspectors. |
| Building safety risks | A risk to the safety of persons in or about a building arising from the spread of fire, structural failure or any other matter prescribed in regulation. |
| Building work | Work on buildings to which building regulations apply, principally the construction and extension of buildings, material changes of use and material alterations. |
| Common parts | Those parts of higher-risk buildings (such as a block of flats) which are used by the residents of more than one flat (such as the corridors and fire-escape routes) and includes the structure and exterior of the building. |
| Committee on Industry Competence | New industry-led, expert committee set up by the Building Safety Regulator to facilitate improvement in the competence of the built environment sector. |
| Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 | The main set of regulations for managing the health, safety and welfare of construction projects. |
| Dutyholders | The key roles (whether fulfilled by individuals or organisations) that are assigned specific responsibilities at particular phases of the building life cycle. |
| Fire and rescue authorities (FRA) | In England and Wales, fire and rescue authorities are independent local public bodies under the Fire and Rescue Services Act and also the enforcing authorities under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Different governance models apply: standalone (or combined) fire and rescue authorities, County Council or Unitary Authorities; mayoral authorities (London and Manchester); and, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners. In Wales, a fire and rescue authority is a county council or a county borough council. |
| Fire and Rescue Service(s) (FRS) | The Fire and Rescue Service is the operational fire brigade, delivering all the functions associated with that role, and headed by a Chief Fire Officer. FRSs are overseen by FRAs and cover the identical geographical area to the FRA. |
| Fire risk assessment | The fire risk assessment is the process by which the Responsible Person must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the presence of fire risks to relevant persons who are on or in the vicinity of premises regulated by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and must identify the general fire precautions needed to prevent or mitigate these risks in order to protect the safety of the relevant persons and comply with the legislation. |
| First-tier Tribunal | In England, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) is the specialist forum which determines a range of disputes in relation to property and land. These include questions relating to leasehold service charges, enfranchisement, park homes and land registration. The First-tier Tribunal is intended to be accessible to parties acting "in person" i.e. without legal representation, and it does not generally award legal costs. Decisions made by the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) can be appealed to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). |
| Gateway one, two and three | Three key stages in the building development for higher-risk buildings, where the dutyholder must comply with requirements before they can continue to the next stage of development. |
| Golden thread | Information required through other processes (such as Gateways two and three and the safety case) to support building safety held digitally to specific principles. These principles will include requirements around robust information management and keeping the information up to date. The golden thread will ensure that those responsible for the building have the required information to manage building safety during throughout the lifecycle of the building. |
| Higher-risk buildings | The technical term for buildings in scope of the new more stringent regulatory regime, as defined in the Act. |
| The Housing Ombudsman | The Housing Ombudsman provides redress for social housing residents. The Ombudsman’s scheme was approved by the Secretary of State under section 51 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Housing Act 1996. Membership of the scheme is compulsory for social landlords (primarily housing associations who are or have been registered with the social housing regulator) and local authority landlords. |
| Mandatory Occurrence Reporting duties | The Mandatory Occurrence Reporting duties will require dutyholders across all stages of the existence of a higher-risk building to report fire and structural safety occurrences to the Building Safety Regulator which could pose a significant risk to life. Dutyholders will also be required to establish an internal framework for the monitoring of occurrences which might arise. |
| Multi-disciplinary team | Refers to a team which may be put in place by the Building Safety Regulator when it regulates higher-risk buildings. The team would include a fire safety expert, typically from the relevant Fire and Rescue Service, and a building control specialist, typically from the relevant local authority. |
| New Homes Ombudsman | An independent third party to provide alternative dispute resolution service between developers and purchasers of new build homes, and to remedy complaints. |
| Operational Standards Rules | Rules for local authorities and building control bodies setting out the performance requirements to be met in the exercise of their building control functions. |
| Principal Accountable Person | See above for the definition of an Accountable Person. The Principal Accountable Person will have same statutory obligations for assessing and managing building safety risks in their own area of the building as other Accountable Persons but will also have overall responsibility for meeting specific statutory obligations for the whole building. |
| Principal Contractor | Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 a Principal Contractor is a contractor appointed by the client to be in control of the construction phase of the project when there is more than one contractor working on the project. The Principal Designer can be an organisation or an individual. |
| Principal Designer | Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, a Principal Designer is a designer appointed by the client to be in control of the pre-construction phase of the project, when there is more than one contractor working on the project. The Principal Designer can be an organisation or an individual. |
| Refurbishment | A change made to a building which should be subject to consideration about how the change affects or might affect the safety of people in the building with respect to building safety risks. |
| Registered building control approver(s) | Formerly known as an Approved Inspector. Refers to private sector firms doing building control work. |
| Registered building inspector | Refers to individual inspectors that are registered by the Building Safety Regulator. |
| Resident | A "resident" of a residential unit is a person who resides there, regardless of tenure. |
| Residents’ Engagement Strategy | This is the means by which those living in buildings covered by the new regulatory regime can get more involved in decision-making in relation to the safety of their homes. It will set out the approach and the activities that the Accountable Person will undertake to deliver these opportunities for all residents to participate. |
| Residents’ panel | A statutory committee to be set up by the Building Safety Regulator. The residents’ panel will be made up of residents and representatives/advocates of residents, and advise the Building Safety Regulator on strategy, policy, systems and guidance which will be of particular interest to residents of higher-risk buildings. |
| Responsible Person |
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a responsible person for a workplace is: · the employer if the workplace is to any extent under his control; or · in premises which are not a workplace, the person who has control of the premises (as occupier or otherwise) in connection with carrying on of a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not); or · the owner where the person in control of the premises does not have control in connection with the carrying out by that person of a trade, business or other undertaking. |
| Safety case report | A structured argument, supported by a body of evidence that provides a compelling, comprehensible, evidenced and valid case, as to how the Accountable Person is proactively managing fire and structural risks in order to prevent a major incident and limit the consequences to people in and around the building. |
| Special Measures Manager | A court appointed manager who has been put in place by the Building Safety Regulator in circumstances where there has been a single serious or repeated breaches of the statutory obligations by the Accountable Person under the Building Safety Regime. The manager will manage the fire and structural safety of the building in accordance with measures as set out in an order made by the court, taking over the Accountable Person’s functions under Part 4. |
