Building Safety Act competence: duties for designers and contractors

In England, since 1 October 2023 the Building Regulations 2010 have required anyone carrying out design work or building work to be competent for it. For individuals that means having the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours the work needs. For organisations it means having the organisational capability. Clients must appoint competent people, and on projects with more than one designer or contractor they must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor. This post covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own building regulations, so check the position there separately.

Where the competence duties come from

The duties sit in Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010 ("Dutyholders and competence"), inserted by the Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023, which came into force on 1 October 2023. Those regulations were made under the Building Act 1984 and the Building Safety Act 2022. According to GOV.UK, the dutyholder and competence rules apply to all building work from 1 October 2023 onwards, not only to higher-risk buildings.

GOV.UK identifies the dutyholders as clients, designers, principal designers, contractors and principal contractors.

What "competent" means

Regulation 11F is the general competence requirement. It applies to anyone carrying out building work or design work:

• an individual needs "the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours" necessary for the work; and
• a firm or other organisation needs "the organisational capability", which GOV.UK describes as having the policies, procedures, systems and resources to meet its duties.

GOV.UK also says individuals must be able to refuse work that is beyond their competence. If a person stops meeting the requirements, regulation 11I requires them to tell the relevant people. Who is told depends on the role; for a principal designer or principal contractor, it is the client.

Principal designer and principal contractor

Regulations 11G and 11H apply the same competence standard to the principal designer, for the design work in the project, and to the principal contractor, for the building work. If the principal designer or principal contractor is an organisation rather than a person, it must designate an individual to manage its functions, after taking all reasonable steps to confirm that individual is competent.

GOV.UK describes the roles like this:

• The principal designer carries out all designer duties, coordinates the design team, and must assess design work to make sure all designers produce designs that comply with the relevant building regulations.
• The principal contractor carries out all contractor duties, coordinates the building work, and must never accept non-compliant building work.

If either stops being principal designer or principal contractor, GOV.UK says they must give the client a handover document within 28 days.

Duties for clients, designers and contractors

Under regulation 11A, a client must make suitable arrangements for planning, managing and monitoring a project, including allocating sufficient time and other resources, so as to ensure compliance with all relevant requirements. GOV.UK says a client must also appoint competent designers and contractors and, where there is more than one designer or contractor, appoint in writing a principal designer and a principal contractor.

GOV.UK summarises the others as follows:

• Designers must not start design work until satisfied the client knows its duties, must take reasonable steps so that their design, if built, complies with all relevant requirements, and must share enough design information with the client and others.
• Contractors have parallel duties for building work, including not starting work until the client understands its duties, supervising and informing their workers, and helping ensure the work complies.

A person making an appointment has a duty to appoint a competent person, according to GOV.UK's circular on the changes.

Trainees

The regulations do not require people who are still in training to meet the competence standard in full, but they must be adequately supervised by the person who asked them to do the work. GOV.UK says trainees cannot carry out design work or building work unsupervised. A person training to be a principal designer or principal contractor cannot be appointed to that role on a project.

Quick reference

Higher-risk buildings and the Building Safety Regulator

Additional rules apply to higher-risk buildings. Section 65 of the Building Safety Act 2022 defines a higher-risk building as a building in England that is at least 18 metres in height or has at least 7 storeys, and contains at least two residential units. GOV.UK's circular letter explains that, for building control, the regime also covers hospitals and care homes of that size, with the definition drawn from section 120D of the Building Act 1984 and separate 2023 regulations. Use GOV.UK's criteria pages to check whether a particular building is in scope.

Since 1 October 2023, the Building Safety Regulator has been the building control authority for higher-risk buildings in England, according to GOV.UK, so local authority and private sector building control can no longer oversee new in-scope work. GOV.UK describes the Regulator as an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, responsible among other things for assessing building control applications for higher-risk buildings in England.

GOV.UK's circular says that on higher-risk work dutyholders must demonstrate to the Regulator how they intend to comply, and must submit a competence declaration when requesting a completion certificate. GOV.UK's building control approval guidance adds that the Regulator uses the application to check that the client appoints people who are competent to do their job. Outside higher-risk work, the circular does not expect proactive inspections; authorities can instead trace back through the project if non-compliance arises.

Competence standards such as PAS 8671 and PAS 8672

GOV.UK's guidance on meeting the requirements says the PAS 8671 (principal designers) and PAS 8672 (principal contractors) standards can help you benchmark competence, but that complying with them does not guarantee you meet all your legal obligations. We have not checked the current editions, so look at the British Standards Institution's publication details before citing one. The legal test remains the one in the regulations.

Practical steps

• Check competence before appointing, and keep records of how you decided, for both individuals and firms.
• Make sure principal designers and principal contractors are named in writing where there is more than one designer or contractor.
• Define who is supervising anyone in training.
• Know when to say no. Staff should feel able to refuse work beyond their competence.
• Keep professional development up to date; our CPD hub has guides on the schemes that architects and engineers use.

Frequently asked questions

Do the competence duties only apply to higher-risk buildings?

No. GOV.UK says the dutyholder and competence rules apply to all building work in England from 1 October 2023. Higher-risk buildings have extra requirements on top.

Who decides whether someone is competent?

GOV.UK says a person making an appointment has a duty to appoint a competent person, and the person doing the work must meet the test in regulation 11F. The regulation text we read does not name one approved qualification.

Is PAS 8671 a legal requirement?

No. GOV.UK describes it as a way to benchmark competence and says compliance does not guarantee you meet your legal obligations.

Do architects need to be registered to be a principal designer?

The competence test in regulation 11F, as we read it, does not name a particular registration. Architects remain subject to the Architects Registration Board's own rules and CPD scheme, which are a separate matter. Our guide to how the ARB CPD scheme works covers that.

Does this apply in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?

This post covers England. The 2023 regulations extend to England and Wales, but the higher-risk building regime and GOV.UK guidance we cite are for England, so take separate advice for other nations.

In summary

Competence under the Building Regulations is about the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for people, and the right systems and resources for organisations. Clients must appoint accordingly, and on higher-risk buildings the Building Safety Regulator checks.

This article is general information, not legal, regulatory or compliance advice. Check the legislation and current GOV.UK guidance, or take professional advice, before relying on it for a project.