Part 4: Higher-risk buildings Enforcement Section 101: Offence: contravention giving rise to risk of death and serious injury Background
Where a requirement under the new regime is breached, the Building Safety Regulator would normally be expected to use a compliance notice as described in the previous sections to secure compliance from the Accountable Person – or an urgent action notice, where the contravention places people in or about the building in imminent danger. For the most serious breaches of these requirements, where the failure places those in or about the building at a significant risk of death or serious injury, the Building Safety Regulator will be able to move directly to prosecution for the offence described in this section, if it considers that to be the most effective and appropriate course of action.
Example
On a first inspection of an existing higher-risk building, the Building Safety Regulator finds evidence that, while the building’s main exit route is in constant use, the emergency exit at the foot of the stairs is seldom used and, over time, has warped to the point where it has become stuck in the frame and cannot be opened, even by putting a shoulder to it. In addition, the building’s office is on the ground floor and has no self-closing device on the door, with numerous ignition sources in the office and deliveries stored there, giving a high risk of fire open to the living accommodation. This means that a fire in the office would affect the means of escape for anyone wanting to evacuate because, due to the stuck emergency exit, they have to pass the office and, for the accommodation on the ground floor, the fire and smoke will be right outside their front doors.
Given the potential seriousness of these risks, the Building Safety Regulator issues the Accountable Person with an urgent action notice (as described in section 99), requiring the issues to be rectified within seven days. In addition, as the Building Safety Regulator has found similar failings in other buildings under the control of the Accountable Person, and given the significant risk of death or serious injury to those living in the building, the Building Safety Regulator decides it would be appropriate to prosecute the Accountable Person for this offence and seek a significant penalty from the courts to punish this non-compliance.