What does the new Building Safety Act 2022 mean for your construction project? (as of July-2025).
On 1 October the Building etc (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 came into force, providing further clarity on how the government intends to implement the new regulatory regime introduced under the Building Safety Act 2022, Any project requiring a new Building Regulations application, from domestic house extensions to higher-risk buildings (HRBs), will now require two ‘principal duty holders’ to be appointed: the Principal Designer and the Principal Contractor.
Architects will be familiar with these duty holder titles which were first introduced under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, But the duties and responsibilities for the Principal Designer under CDM (secondary legislation made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974) are markedly different to those now required of the Principal Designer under the Building Regulations (secondary legislation made under the Building Act 19841 and the Building Safety Act 2022).
What does the new Building Safety Act 2022 mean for your construction project?
Since the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022, all construction clients must manage their construction projects and appoint competent designers and contractors and if your project involves more than one designer or contractor working on the project, you have a legal duty appoint in writing:
• principal designer to be in control of design work
• principal contractor to be in control of the building work
Despite the Principal Designer for Building Regulations having the same name as the CDM Principal Designer, the role of Principal Designer for Building Regulations (PDBR) is distinct and separate, with very different roles and responsibilities.
The appointment of a PDBR is required for all construction projects from small domestic extensions to complex multi-million-pound developments.
If your project is classed as a ‘Higher-Risk Building’ under the Building Safety Act 2022, then additional requirements apply.
What does a Principal Designer for Building Regulations do?
Principal Designers must:
• take reasonable steps to make sure all designers comply with their duties under building regulations.
• assess design work to make sure all designers produce designs that comply with relevant building regulations.
• work with the principal contractor and share information about planning, managing, monitoring and coordinating the design and building work.
• assist the client in providing information to others, if requested.
What are the key differences?
Under CDM, the primary duty of the Principal Designer is to plan, manage and monitor the pre-construction phase of a project and to co-ordinate matters relating to health and safety.
This is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that construction projects are designed and managed without risks to the health or safety of those who build, use and maintain them.
Under the Building Regulations, the Principal Designer is required to ‘plan, manage and monitor the design work during the design phase and to ‘co-ordinate matters relating to the design work comprised in the project so that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the design is such that if the building work to which the design relates were built in accordance with that design the building work would be in compliance with all relevant requirements’.
These relevant requirements are defined, and include those listed in Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010, from Part A – Structure, through to Part S – Infrastructure for the Charging of Electric Vehicles, as well as Regulation 7, governing materials and workmanship. Materials must be appropriate for the circumstances in which they are used, so as to adequately perform the functions for which they are designed.
In other words, the new Principal Designer duty holder must take ‘all reasonable steps’ to ensure the design work on a project is co-ordinated to demonstrate compliance with the Building Regulations. Although individual designers remain responsible for the compliance of their own design work, the new Principal Designer will have overall responsibility for co-ordinating the design and must only accept commissions where they have the ‘skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours necessary to fulfil their duties’,
Extra roles and responsibilities
The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 20238 contain additional requirements, including the need for a ‘competence declaration’ and a ‘Building Regulations compliance statement’ to be provided as part of an HRB Building Control approval application.
The Principal Designer must also ensure an ‘appropriate frequency of inspections’ of HRB design work for safety occurrences throughout the construction phase, with a safety occurrence being an aspect of the design relating to the structural integrity or fire safety of a higher-risk building that would, if built, meet the risk condition that use of the building in question without the incident or situation being remedied would be likely to present a risk of a significant number of deaths, or serious injury to a significant number of people.
“The government does not expect ‘duplicate duty holders’, and the intention is for both Principal Designer roles to be performed by the same entity to avoid confusion…there is very likely to be increased demand for architects, as lead designers, to also act as the Principal Designer”
Principal Designer – Summary of PAS 8671 competence
The Building Regulations principal designer (PD) must plan, manage, monitor design work, and cooperate, coordinate and communicate to ensure the design work, if built, complies with building regulations.
It is important that the principal designer is part of the design team and not a third-party without any influence over design decisions.
The principal designer should be able to co-ordinate the design team. It may help the principal designer to keep a record of designers and their responsibilities across a project.
A principal designer is not expected to be an expert in every design specialism, but they are expected to know enough about the building regulations to assess whether a building design will comply with all relevant regulations.
Principal designers should support others, for example, in being able to pass on necessary information to contractors and explain to them how to demonstrate that elements are built properly.
Summary of the competence for all buildings
Legislative and regulatory framework for compliance
Understanding the law (role and competency requirements set out in the Building Regulations) as this will enable the principal designer to understand their role.
Management of design work compliance
Be able to manage other designers and reach consensus that design work is compliant with building regulations. Monitor identified compliance risks and assess gaps in other designers’ competences.
The PAS 8671 describes ‘management’ as:
• setting the plan for achieving design work compliance.
• controlling changes to the plan and monitor risks to design work compliance
• coordinating designers’ work related to achieving the plan
• liaising with principal contractors about design work compliance
• monitoring progress against the plan through to the end of the design phase
Technical framework for compliance
Principal designer should understand technical guidance, codes of practice and standards so that they can assess, challenge, and build design team consensus on design compliance.