2.The Building Safety (Wales) Act (“the Act”) introduces a new building safety regime in Wales focusing on the occupation phase of a building’s life cycle. It covers the regulation of building safety risks in multi-occupied residential buildings. The Act’s provisions will help to address issues identified by the Hackitt Review, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, and Welsh Government’s Building Safety Expert Group in the aftermath of the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, London, in June 2017.
3.Primary legislation is required to introduce a comprehensive new building safety regime that could be applied across all multi-occupied residential buildings.
4.The Welsh Government convened a Building Safety Expert Group in October 2018 to identify the terms of a Welsh response to the issues raised by the Hackitt Review and advise on the applicability of the Review to the Welsh context. This included areas that a Welsh response could strengthen or develop further and areas for particular priority in terms of implementation. The Group also highlighted areas where it considered that the Welsh Government should not deviate from the approach taken by the UK Government and where both governments should work in partnership.
5.The Safer Buildings in Wales White Paper consultation opened in January 2021. It proposed a comprehensive reform of legislation, representing a significant overhaul of the existing system for building safety in Wales. The Welsh Government published its response to the consultation on 14 December 2021.
6.The Building Safety (Wales) Act establishes a new regime for the occupation and ongoing management of multi-occupied residential buildings arising from the legislative reform workstream of the Building Safety Programme.
7.In summary, the Act:
	identifies those on whom statutory duties under the Act are to be placed;
	requires the registration of certain regulated buildings i.e. those at least 11 metres in height or which have at least 5 storeys with a building safety authority;
	confers new functions on the “building safety authority”, which is a local authority in each fire and rescue authority area that is designated by the Welsh Ministers as the building safety authority for that area;
	confers new functions on the “fire safety authority” in Wales, which is each fire and rescue authority for an area in Wales or a fire inspector (as regards Crown premises);
	creates duties to assess and manage fire safety risks in all in-scope buildings;
	creates duties to assess and manage structural safety risks in in-scope buildings that are at least 11 metres in height, or which have at least 5 storeys;
	puts in place new rights for residents and place duties on them in respect of all in-scope buildings;
	establishes a new enforcement regime to enable enforcement action to be taken if the new duties are not met;
	enables the Welsh Ministers, by regulations, to provide that the residential property tribunal may make a remediation order; and may make a remediation contribution order that would require payments to be made by a relevant body corporate or partnership to a specified person for the purposes of meetings costs incurred in remedying, or otherwise in connection with, relevant defects relating to a relevant building;
	enables the Welsh Ministers by regulations, to make provision limiting (in some cases to nil), the requirement to pay certain service charges, and to make connected provision.
8.The Act comprises 5 Parts and 4 Schedules.
Summary and Policy Background