Duty holder duties and competence
The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 set out a framework which identifies those duty holders involved in the procurement, design and undertaking of building work, and imposes duties on them. They apply to all building work from 1 October 2023 onwards.
The duty holders to which these regulations will apply will be clients, principal designers, designers, principal contractors and contractors. As has always been the case, the duty to ensure that the work complies with all relevant building regulations is on those procuring and undertaking the design and building work.
Duty holders will need to plan, manage and monitor their work, cooperate and communicate with each other and coordinate their work. Those undertaking design work and building work will need to have the right competence (the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours or organisational capability) for the work they are engaged to do.
The person making the appointment for design work or commissioning building work has a duty to appoint a competent person, and the person undertaking the work should not undertake the work if they are not competent to do so.
Anyone undertaking design work or building work will need to plan, manage and monitor the work to ensure that it complies with all relevant requirements. When carrying out design work the designer or principal designer will be required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the design is such that, if the building work to which the design relates has been built in accordance with that design then the building work would comply with all relevant requirements.
When carrying out building work, the contractor or principal contractor will need to ensure the building work they carry out complies with all relevant requirements. The requirements placed upon clients, designers, principal designers, contractors and principal contractors are listed in regulations 11A to 11O of the Building Regulations 2010 as inserted by Regulation 6 of the Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023. In higher-risk buildings the duty holders will need to demonstrate to the Regulator how they intend to comply, how they are complying, and how they have complied with their duties, including submitting a competence declaration to the Regulator when requesting a competition certificate for the work.
Other than the checks being carried out for higher-risk building work when applications are made to the Regulator, we are not expecting proactive inspections of the duty holder and competence regime.
However, when there is a failure to comply with building regulations, the duty holder and competence regulations will enable the building control authority to track back through the design and building processes for the project for each of the relevant duty holders and take appropriate action for non-compliance with the building regulations as appropriate.