HSE guidance on safety cases and safety case reports

News

The building and fire safety regulatory space has seen much changed over the last few years. The landmark Building Safety Bill Act has come into law, the Fire Safety Act has now commenced, and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 have been published and will come into force from January 2023. 

The duties described in the Building Safety Act have not yet come into force. Registration of existing buildings is expected to begin in April 2023, with the Building Assessment Certificate process expected to begin in April 2024. 

In the area of information management, many of the details around the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of information management or creating and maintaining the golden thread of are still due to come down the line. Secondary legislation will be consulted on some time over the summer, during a 12-week consultation period.  IWFM will be engaging with this exercise through a variety of methodologies. 

In advance of the consultation, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who will be providing the Regulator function, has published a series of online guidance on safety cases and safety case reports for those who will have duties under the Act to get ready for the new regime and manage risks effectively. The guidance covers what you need to know and do in this area and is broken down in five further areas: 

1. Building information 

2. Identify risks 

3. Risk prevention and protective measures 

4. Safety management systems 

5. Safety case report 

IWFM has previously fed into the drafts of some of these documents. The guidance further contains cross references to previously released guidance on a wide variety of areas, including transitional arrangements.