Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control authorities and building regulations Section 39: Breach of building regulations Background
Alongside section 38, this section provides stronger sanctions for use by building control authorities against those who seek to breach building regulations. This follows Dame Judith Hackitt’s finding in her foreword to the Independent Report that one of the key issues underpinning the failure of the Building Safety Regulatory system that led to the Grenfell Tower fire was that there was "Inadequate regulatory oversight and enforcement… Where enforcement is necessary, it is often not pursued. Where it is pursued, the penalties are so small as to be an ineffective deterrent".
Example
The Building Safety Regulator may discover what it believes to be an instance of non-reporting and decide to prosecute a Principal Contractor on this basis. However, the Principal Contractor has evidence which suggests that he had reason to believe the Principal Designer had already reported the relevant occurrence. Such evidence could be used as a defence against the charge.