The Building Safety Act 2022 introduces significant changes to building control and responsibilities in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, emphasising the need for competency among project participants. With the establishment of new duty holders and the introduction of the Engineering Council's standards for demonstrating competence, the Society of Façade Engineering is actively working to ensure that façade professionals are equipped to meet these new regulatory demands.
In response to the Grenfell Tower disaster and the Hackett Review there has been a major overhaul of the Building Control and the responsibilities of those delivering buildings. This is encapsulated in the Building Safety Act 2022 that is now being implemented. This legislation will have a major impact on the organisation of projects and the roles and duties of those working on them.
Some of the impacts have been:
- Creation of the Building Safety Authority, under the Health and Safety Executive
- Creation of new duty holders – Accountable Person, Principal Designer, Principal Contractor, Building Safety Manager (post-completion)
- New duties and a need to demonstrate competency for all project participants
- Identification of High Risk Buildings (HRBs) – namely residential buildings over 18m, hospitals and hostels.
- New approval procedures for HRBs requiring submissions to the Building Safety Executive for approval at Gateway One (planning), Two (prior to construction) and Three (completion and occupation)
One of the key aspects of the new building control regime is the duty holders have appointed a competent team and therefore the ability for project participants to demonstrate their competency to work on project is important, particularly for High-Risk Buildings. As a professional and learned body linked to the Engineering Council through CIBSE the Society of Façade Engineering has participated in the scheme to allow engineering professionals in key disciplines, including Façade Engineering to demonstrate their competence.
In 2024, Engineering Council published a contextualised standard for demonstrating competence in the design of Higher-Risk Buildings under the Building Safety Act. There are two parts to this:
- Discipline annexes for Fire, Structural, Building Services and Facade Engineering
Together these set out Engineering Council’s competency criteria for those seeking to demonstrate competence in the design of higher-risk buildings. Russell Cole led the working group responsible for the annexes for façade engineering, with the support and assistance of Damien Rogen, Claudia Farabegoli and Steve Bosi. Following publication of the above, EngC-member institutions can now apply for a licence to award HRB registration. SFE is working with CIBSE obtained a licence to award registration for façade engineering. The register will operate on a similar basis to chartership, and although HSE will not be prescriptive in membership of the register being the only route by which competence is to be demonstrated, Engineering Council will be promoting the register as the route by which they consider competence should be demonstrated. It is similar to and is based on EngTech/IEng/CEng standards – the main difference being that competence for admission to the register must be specific to Higher-Risk Buildings.
In addition to the Engineering Council scheme the SFE have been an active and key participant in the façade industry’s Joint Competency Initiative. This scheme considers the wider industry and many SFE members participated in the various working groups looking at different aspects of how the scheme will be developed and implemented by the wider industry.