Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control authorities and building regulations Section 32: Building control authorities Effect
This section amends section 91 of, and inserts new sections 91ZA, 91ZB, 91ZC and 121A into, the Building Act 1984 to set out, for England, the arrangements where the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority, and to define higher risk building work (see below as to Wales).
	The amendments to section 91 for England make clear that for buildings or building work where the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority, the local authority is no longer responsible for acting as the building control authority for enforcing the requirements of building regulations in respect of those buildings or that building work.
	Section 91ZA(1) provides that, in England, the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority for work on higher-risk buildings, or for work on buildings which are to be higher-risk buildings, (higher-risk building work). Therefore, it is responsible for supervising building work and enforcing compliance with building regulations’ requirements for those buildings.
	Section 91ZA(2) provides that, in England, the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority in situations where a non-higher risk building becomes one as a result of building work being undertaken, or where a higher-risk building ceases to be one as a result of building work. Section 91ZA(3) defines (for England) building work for which the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority as higher-risk building work.
	Section 91ZB enables, in England, the person undertaking the work to issue a notice to the relevant local authority in agreement with the Building Safety Regulator, so that the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority for building work on a non-higher risk building (called a "regulator’s notice"). A regulator’s notice can only be issued provided that neither a building control application has already been made to a local authority nor an initial notice nor a public body’s notice has already been issued (subsection (3)).
	Section 91ZC makes supplemental provision to section 91ZB. In particular, subsections (2) – (4) provide that regulators’ notices can be rejected only on grounds prescribed in building regulations; that a notice of rejection must be issued within a prescribed period, otherwise the regulator’s notice is treated as being accepted; and that rejection of a regulator’s notice may be appealed. Subsection (5) allows for building regulations to prescribe the form and content of a regulator’s notice and the way in which it is to be issued.
	This section also inserts new section 121A(1) into the Building Act 1984 to make clear that, in England, the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority where sections 91ZA and 91ZB provide for this to be the case, otherwise the building control authority will be a local authority. The definition of a building control authority being either the Building Safety Regulator or a local authority is the definition used for all of the new references to "building control authority" being inserted into the Building Act 1984.
	Schedule 5 makes consequential amendments to the Building Act 1984.