Part 2: The Regulator and its functions The regulator and its functions Section 3: The regulator: objectives and regulatory principles Effect
Section 3 sets out the objectives that the Health and Safety Executive must follow when exercising its functions as the Building Safety Regulator (such functions are referred to as building functions), and certain principles which will guide the way the Building Safety Regulator undertakes its main operational functions.
	The first objective is to secure the safety of people in or about buildings. This aim applies to risks to safety that are associated with buildings (rather than, for example, broader issues of general crime and disorder). The objective covers people either in buildings or in their immediate vicinity, as (for example) people close to a building could be hit by material from the building.
	The second objective is to improve the standard of buildings. The Health and Safety Executive could fulfil this objective by taking steps that either improve the quality of a standard or lead to more consistent compliance with an existing standard. A standard is defined in section 30 and can cover the requirements of the building regulations, guidance in Approved Documents, as well as non-legislative British Standards set by the British Standards Institution, and standards recognised within industry.
	When undertaking a specific activity, the Building Safety Regulator may consider that only one objective is relevant, or that one objective should carry more weight than the other.
	The Building Safety Regulator will not be responsible directly for the construction or management of buildings - this Act, alongside the Building Act 1984 and building regulations, assigns clear duties in respect of those matters. For example, the Accountable Person is primarily responsible for ensuring that a higher-risk building is managed safely when occupied (see later sections). The intention of the statutory objective is to ensure that the Health and Safety Executive exercises its regulatory functions with the aim of securing safety and improving standards.
	Section 3 then sets out principles to which the Building Safety Regulator must have regard when delivering its main operational functions. These principles are focused on the way in which the Building Safety Regulator should undertake its main operational functions. The principles reflect established regulatory good practice.
	Under the principles, operational activity should be consistent, transparent and accountable, which could be secured by grounding operational activity on published policy and guidance, and publishing performance metrics about how the activity was undertaken. Activity should be targeted on cases where action is needed, and be proportionate, rather than (for example) requiring excessively costly measures for little benefit in terms of reduction in risk.
	All the Building Safety Regulator’s building functions are subject to the principles, except the regulator’s general functions in sections 4 to 6. This reflects that these general functions focus on driving culture change and improvement across whole industries, or monitoring safety and standards across all buildings. When undertaking these very general functions, which are not focused on enforcing in individual cases, certain of the principles (in particular targeting action only at cases where action is needed) are not appropriate.
	Section 3 defines the Building Safety Regulator’s "building functions" as:
Building functions provided for in this Act, the Building Act 1984, and regulations made under those two pieces of legislation;
Functions of the Health and Safety Executive defined as building functions by regulations made under this section;
Functions of the Health and Safety Executive provided for under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 that relate directly to the other building functions (such as exercising the powers in new section 11A Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which enables the Health and Safety Executive to make arrangements to deliver its building functions).
	Building functions are subject to the Building Safety Regulator’s objectives, would form part of the Building Safety Regulator’s strategic plan (see section 17), are relevant to powers to share information and duties to cooperate (see section 27 and Schedule 3) and are subject to the regular review of the regulatory system (see section 162).