Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control approvers and building inspectors Section 46: Higher-risk building work: registered building control approvers Background
This section amends sections 47, 51A and 53 of the Building Act 1984 and inserts new provisions, section 52A and 52B into that Act. The current provisions in the Building Act 1984 allow for supervision of plans and building work to be undertaken either by local authority building control or by an Approved Inspector (or by a public body itself – see section 47).
	This section amends the Building Act 1984 to prevent a dutyholder in relation to higher-risk building work from choosing their building control body, as recommended by the Independent Review. The amendments ensure the new Building Safety Regulator is the building control body for this type of building work and is able to apply the new regulatory arrangements to improve the safety of such buildings. The definition of "higher-risk building work" is dealt with in section 31.
Example 1
A registered building control approver inadvertently specifies some higher-risk building work in an initial notice. Whether or not the notice is accepted by the local authority the notice would be void and have no legal effect as section 47(1)(a) (as amended by this section) makes it unlawful for an initial notice to relate to a higher-risk building work. The whole notice would be void.
The following examples apply in circumstances where there is a new non-higher-risk building due to be constructed, and there is a change to the use or the height of, or number of storeys in the building such that after the works the building is a higher-risk building. In these scenarios, the dutyholder for the building work must follow the regulatory process for higher-risk buildings, and only the Building Safety Regulator can supervise the building work relating to such buildings.
Example 2: Registered Building Control Approver
A registered building control approver may have submitted an initial notice for a building which did not specify any higher-risk building work, but with a change of plans the work subsequently becomes higher-risk building work. They will be required to submit a cancellation notice to the local authority. The supervision of building work in relation to higher-risk building work is to then be the role of the Building Safety Regulator (see section 91ZA of the Building Act 1984 as inserted by section 32) and the construction Gateways or refurbishments etc. processes must be used.
Example 3: Person(s) carrying out the work
The person(s) carrying out the work under an existing initial notice wishes to change their building plans for a development to such an extent that it results in the building, if built, being a higher-risk building. If the change requires planning permission, then planning Gateway one will apply and the local planning authority will inform them that the development will be required to be submitted with a Fire Statement. If the change is possible without a new planning permission, then their existing registered building control approver (currently known as Approved Inspector) should inform the person(s) that this will result in the works becoming higher-risk building work. If the person(s) carrying out the work wishes to continue with the change they should then cancel the existing initial notice and follow the new Gateway etc. process.
Example 4: Local authority
A local authority may receive an amendment notice which amends the original initial notice so that some or all of the works become higher-risk building work. An amendment notice that relates to proposed higher-risk building work would be invalid and the local authority should explain this to the registered building control approver/person intending to carry out the works. The local authority has no power to accept or reject the amendment notice as it is void. If the local authority becomes aware that the higher-risk building work has started, then it must cancel the relevant part of the original initial notice under the power in section 52A notifying the registered building control approver and person(s) carrying out the work. The supervision of building work in relation to higher-risk buildings is the role of the Building Safety Regulator (see section 91ZA of the Building Act 1984 as inserted by section 32) and the construction Gateways etc. processes must be used.
Example 5: Part cancellation of an initial notice
A local authority receives an initial notice for a building project containing five buildings that are not higher-risk building work. Later the developer changes the plans for one of the buildings to be a higher-risk building and for the other four to remain non-higher-risk buildings. The initial notice would be partially cancelled, remaining valid for the four non-higher-risk buildings but not valid for the fifth, higher-risk building.