The first meeting of the Building Advisory Committee (BAC) took place on 20 December 2022. The BAC was established under the Building Safety Act, 2022 as part of the Government’s reforms of building safety. The reforms are designed to create lasting change and make it clear how buildings should be constructed, maintained, and made safe.
BAC will advise and inform the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in its important mission to ensure the safety of residents in high-rise buildings, as well as the Regulator’s other roles including keeping the safety and standards of all buildings under review.
The inaugural meeting was an introduction to BSR and the role of the committee before it starts preparing its workplan. It was chaired by the Health and Safety Executive’s Chief Inspector of Buildings, Peter Baker, who commented:
“I am delighted to welcome the first members to the inaugural meeting of BAC and look forward to working with them in tackling the challenges in the built environment, and in helping to drive culture change and ownership of building safety and standards by industry. BAC’s function is to support the Building Safety Regulator in its important work to protect residents and users of high-rise buildings, identify new and emerging risks affecting the safety and standards of all buildings, and to help develop sensible and proportionate solutions.”
“Establishing the Building Advisory Committee is another important milestone for the Building Safety Regulator and the introduction of the new, more stringent building safety regime following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.”
Dr Hywel Davies sits on the committee as an independent representative. He is joined by Andrew Lawrence, Simon Lay, Nick Mellor, Paul Mooney, Andy Mullins, Paul Nash, Suzannah Nichol, Benjamin Ralph, Niall Rowan, Aman Sharma, and Martin Taylor.
Hywel Davies, chief technical officer at CIBSE, said: ‘I look forward to serving on the committee to advise and support the new regulator in rebuilding confidence and trust in the sector.
‘The establishment of the Building Advisory Committee is the first of many measures to implement the new Building Safety Act and to deliver the regime to raise standards in the industry, across the whole industry and for all buildings.’
The BAC will be joined in 2023 by two other committees established by the Building Safety Act – the Residents’ Panel and the Industry Competence Committee. Both committees currently support the BSR in an interim, non-statutory form and will be constituted under the Act next year.
Find out more about the Building Advisory Committee via https://consultations.hse.gov.uk/bsr/building-advisory-committee/