Credit iStock – GeorgeClerk
The Building Safety Act (BSA), introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower fire, is a significant legislative change to building safety that impacts new and existing hospital buildings during design and construction.
The act requires greater accountability and responsibility over a building’s life-cycle, and has new responsibilities for stakeholders involved with the design and construction of new and existing buildings. It has also introduced accountable persons and principal accountable persons for occupied buildings higher than 18 metres or seven storeys with residential accommodation, known as higher-risk buildings (HRBs). Hospital buildings within scope include key worker and student accommodation, but not patient wards or on-call rooms.
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) oversees all buildings, particularly the safety of HRBs. For HRBs, there is a requirement to apply to the BSR for building control approval where any building work is proposed. Under the new regime, a much larger amount of information needs to be submitted.
For hospital trusts, this is resulting in additional costs and major delays to projects, as construction cannot start until design approval has been given.
NHS England (NHSE) ProCure23 is supporting the NHS to interpret the BSA. It recognised that the legislation was difficult to apply to hospital sites, which are complex, often consisting of multiple connected buildings with varying heights and uses.
To help hospital trusts comply with the new requirements, NHSE has published several NHS-specific guidance documents. These include a National Estates Technical Bulletin (NETB) on the Building Safety Act1, which offers detailed guidance on the application of the BSA to hospital trusts. Importantly, the NETB provides an explanation and examples of the provisions that allow complex hospital sites to be split into independent sections. To do so, buildings on the estate must have their own entrance/exit and not be connected to any other sections with residential units. The test to determine whether a building is classified as a HRB can then be applied to these sections.
For those parts of a site not subject to the HRB regime, traditional and faster building control approval routes can be taken. This should assist trusts and contractors, as well as local authorities, which, in some instances, wrongly categorise existing buildings as HRBs and refuse to submit or accept building control applications.
The NETB is backed by the NHSE ProCure23 BSA Support Document, which includes 21 hospital-specific scenarios, flowcharts, workflows, and guidance to help trusts understand the nuances of their site.
Competency is a key focus for ensuring building safety. The new Part 2A inserted into the Building Regulations 2010 introduces a new competency regime to ensure that all individuals involved in the design, construction and management of buildings are adequately trained and competent in terms of skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours.
NHSE’s ProCure23 has developed a simple Competency Checklist toolkit that covers Construction Design Management and BSA requirements. It has been validated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for credibility and effectiveness, and is endorsed by the BSR and Local Authority Building Control.
To support the safe operation of hospital buildings, information is crucial. Working with the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), NHSE ProCure23 teams have adopted the principles of the CLC’s Golden Thread guidance2. This provides essential advice on maintaining a golden thread of information throughout the life-cycle of a building – an approach emphasised in the BSA – and is applicable to hospital buildings. The approach has been reflected in the latest ProCure23 workflows and BIM templates.
To understand BSA requirements fully, it is recommended that hospital trusts appoint advisers to support them and define the extents of HRBs and independent sections on hospital estates. l
About the authors
Louise Mansfield is legal director at Bevan Brittan; Andrew Rolf is healthcare technical advisory lead at Mott MacDonald; and Helen Sturdy MCIBSE is head of construction and ProCure23 lead at NHS England
References:
1 National Estates Technical Bulletin 2024/2: Building Safety Act 2022 – application to healthcare buildings, Ref PRN01337
2 Construction Leadership Council: Delivering the Golden Thread: Guidance for dutyholders and accountable persons (August 2024)
Further reading
These and other resources, including a webinar, are available on the Estates and Facilities Collaboration Hub, under the ‘fire section’.