Building Safety Act Compliance: Key Questions for 2025 and Beyond

Since its introduction, the Building Safety Act (2022) has reshaped how Duty Holders understand and approach their responsibilities across construction and design. As we move further into its implementation, it’s vital for clients, designers, and contractors alike to reflect on deeper compliance questions.

This guide, developed from Sweco’s original BSA compliance guidance, explores what needs to be considered to truly meet the Act’s requirements – from organisational capability to information management.

Building on your understanding of the Building Safety Act

The questions that follow assume a base understanding of who a Duty Holder is under the BSA.

You have likely already established how you measure and document your competence and the competence of any individual you have responsibility for commissioning, but as a Client, Principal Designer (Building Regulations), Principal Contractor (Building Regulations), Designer or Contractor you may want to consider these additional questions:

1. How do you manage your Organisational Capability and assess that of the organisations you commission?

Having the best people is not a guarantee of compliance. Having the right resource is important, but their output will depend on three other key organisational factors: Policies, Systems, and Procedures.

What are the organisation’s policies?

Key policies to consider are ethics, security, human rights, and sustainability.

Given the Act places a criminal responsibility on Duty Holders to comply with the Building Regulations, an ethical approach to fulfilling legal responsibilities is key. An example of this is the need for Duty Holders to consider the suitability of the guidance in Approved Documents for the work they are undertaking. These judgements should be made ethically — it’s not appropriate to think in terms of “what can we get away with”.

There are also increased risks in placing work with a company not aligned in terms of security, human rights, and sustainability policies.

Are the systems used by the organisation appropriate?

Systems in this situation are the design apps, databases, etc., that are used to execute the design and construction of building work.

It is important that these systems are suitable for the size and complexity of the task. The Principal Designer should determine the appropriate guidance to follow to achieve compliance, and the systems used should align with that guidance.

What procedures are in place?

Certain regulations require that all reasonable steps be taken to ensure compliance. Key to this is adherence to robust procedural frameworks. Is there a Quality Management System in place? Is it independently accredited?

2. How will you plan, manage, and monitor the fulfilment of your duty?

This question highlights the importance of Organisational Capability.

To fulfil this duty, the organisation needs a competent individual to manage delivery – someone who relies on a strong policy framework, sound procedures, appropriate systems, and a capable workforce. Activities should be documented adequately.

3. How are you going to create a culture of collaboration?

The Building Regulations place legal responsibilities on all duty holders to co-operate, and on Principal Designers and Contractors to liaise and offer advice. Failure to do so increases the risk of non-compliance with the primary duty: ensuring designs and construction comply with regulations.

4. How will design and construction information be managed?

The most important phase of a building’s life is when it is in occupation.

Information must be managed during the design and construction phases to allow the client to manage the building appropriately. For High-Risk Buildings, this is called the Golden Thread – a client duty. Other Duty Holders’ information management should align with this client requirement.

Even for Non-High-Risk Buildings, information management remains crucial. Clients should begin planning for operational information management early in the design process.

Another area of information management that needs consideration is the client’s duty to provide key information about an existing building which they are looking for building work to be undertaken on.

In Sweco’s experience design teams often state that clients have been unable to furnish them with the relevant information such as the Fire Strategy and key Structural information. If this is the case how can the design process be undertaken, and the designers ensure they fulfil their duty?

In April 2025 Regulation 38 (Fire Safety Information) was amended to reflect the explicit responsibility on Duty Holders to comply with the Building Regulations. They are required to confirm to the Registered Building Control Approver (RBCA) that the regulations have been met. The amendments to Regulation 38 broadly introduced a three-stage process with regards to the provision of Fire Safety Information.

1. Principal Contractor provides Fire Safety Information to Responsible Person (Client) prior to completion/occupation
2. Responsible Person confirms to Principal Contractor that information is received and sufficient
3. Principal Contractor confirms to RBCA information issued to and accepted by Responsible Person

Embedding a compliance culture

The Building Safety Act demands more than procedural box-ticking. It requires a shift in mindset – towards ethical judgement, systemic robustness, active information management, and cultural collaboration.

As we move through 2025, organisations must do more than assign responsibilities; they must build capability, maintain accountability, and create a culture where safe outcomes are the standard, not the exception.