Premier Guarantee will once again host expert speakers to discuss the key issues facing the construction industry this year, tickets for which you can get here.
Attendees at InSite: Building Safety and Standards will hear speakers debate and discuss the Building Safety Act, the 2025 Future Homes Standard as well as the industry codes of practice.
Here, we speak to HM Inspector of Health and Safety at the Health and Safety Executive Neil Hope-Collins who tells us about his experiences and plans for InSite.
Having been part of building the new regime I want to be part of making it work in practice. There was an ‘intent’ behind each piece of law, we need to make sure that intent is realised in the application of the law.
I have been an HM Inspector of Health & Safety with HSE since 2000, regulating occupational health and safety on construction sites since 2014. In 2020 an opportunity came up to join the building safety programme, the team who would be realising Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommendations. I have been working on the Building Safety Regulator’s role as a building control authority since then.
Leaving aside my journey as a Health & Safety Inspector and focusing on my experience over the last three years on the building safety programme, biggest challenges on a personal level [have been] learning a whole new area of law. Building Act, building regulations and needing to get to grips very quickly with the law itself, but also understanding how that law had been applied over the years. Understanding the heritage and where that was different from my previous experience with H&S law.
Proudest moments: Knowing there are elements, and in some places specific words, in the Building Safety Act and Regulations that have come directly from suggestions I made. I’m proud of being able to bring over 20 years’ experience as a regulator making the law work in a practical way on sites and through courts to the new regime.
The knowledge that I have been instrumental in developing the legal framework for probably the biggest change to how the construction industry is regulated in a generation. And now, having been part of building the new regime I want to be part of making it work in practice. There was an ‘intent’ behind each piece of law, we need to make sure that intent is realised in the application of the law.
I intend to take attendees on an end-to-end run through the new building control regime for higher risk buildings. The principals were made public when the Building Safety Act was published in parliament as a Bill in July 2020. These principals have remained consistent throughout and were developed in the government consultation on the regulations, published in July 2022. At this stage, with only a couple of weeks to go before the new regime goes live there should be nothing that is new to this audience, but I think it will be useful to have this opportunity to talk through the precise detail of the secondary legislation.
I’d recommend they remind themselves of what was in the government consultation on the secondary legislation, still available here, to look out for further guidance from ourselves and DLUHC as we move through the summer and of course subscribe to the BSR bulletin here HSE ebulletin service - Subscribe to HSE's BSR eBulletin.
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Every care was taken to ensure the information in this article was correct at the time of publication (July 2023). Guidance provided does not replace the reader’s professional judgement and any construction project should comply with the relevant Building Regulations or applicable technical standards. For the most up to date Premier Guarantee technical guidance please refer to your Risk Management Surveyor and the latest version of the Premier Guarantee Technical Manual.
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