The Building Safety Act 2022 is UK legislation that sets out how residential buildings must be designed, constructed, and managed throughout their entire lifecycle. It was introduced following the Grenfell Tower fire to fix deep, systemic failures in how building safety was overseen across England.

Before the Act, there was no single body with clear authority over the most at-risk buildings. The Act changed that by creating named legal duties, a dedicated regulator, and a formal approval process that applies before construction starts and before residents move in.

A quick Building Safety Act 2022 summary

The Act covers several connected areas that together reshape what compliance means in practice:

• A new regulator: The Building Safety Regulator (BSR), sitting within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), now oversees safety standards for higher-risk buildings.
• Named duty holders: Specific individuals and organisations carry legal responsibility at every stage, from design and construction through to day-to-day occupation.
• The gateway process: New higher-risk building projects must pass through three formal approval checkpoints before construction starts and before residents move in.
• The golden thread: Building owners must keep a digital, traceable record of all safety information throughout a building's life, updated as the building changes.
• Resident rights: Leaseholders gain new rights to be consulted and informed about safety matters in their building.
• Criminal penalties: Non-compliance can result in unlimited fines for organisations and up to two years in prison for named individuals.

Does the Building Safety Act apply to your building?

Knowing what the Act requires is only useful once you know whether it applies to you. The Act targets a specific category of property called a higher-risk building (HRB). An HRB is defined as a building that is at least 18 metres tall or has at least seven storeys, and contains at least two residential units.

The requirements apply to both newly constructed buildings and those already occupied. If you manage an existing HRB, you cannot wait for a future project to start taking the Act seriously.

You can use these three questions to check whether your building qualifies:

• Is it at least 18 metres tall or seven or more storeys high?
• Does it contain two or more residential units?
• Is it located in England?

If all three apply, the Act's full requirements are relevant to you. One exception worth knowing: buildings used entirely as a hospital, care home, secure residential institution, hotel, or MoD military housing are excluded from the HRB definition during occupation, even if they meet the height and storey test. Even if your building does not meet the height threshold, the Act's broader principles around competence and record-keeping represent strong practice for any building owner or facilities manager (FM).

Key roles and requirements under the Act

Once you know the Act applies to your building, the next question is: who is legally responsible? The Act names specific roles and makes their duties enforceable under criminal law. Understanding where your responsibility sits is the essential first step before taking any compliance action.

Accountable Persons and Principal Accountable Persons

An Accountable Person (AP) is the individual or organisation legally responsible for managing building safety risks in an occupied higher-risk building (HRB). Where more than one AP exists in a single building, a Principal Accountable Person (PAP) must be appointed to coordinate safety across the whole structure.

Being an AP or PAP is not a job title. It is a set of legal obligations:

• Register with the BSR: Every HRB must be registered with the BSR before residents occupy it.
• Prepare a safety case report: This document sets out how fire and structural risks are identified, managed, and kept under review on an ongoing basis.
• Manage the golden thread: You must hold accurate digital records of all prescribed building safety information and obtain missing documents where practicable.
• Keep risk assessments current: Assessments must be updated regularly. Completing one and filing it away does not meet the standard.

Failing to meet these obligations carries criminal liability, with enforcement action ranging from compliance notices to prosecution.

The Building Safety Regulator and the gateway process

The BSR sits within the HSE and holds direct enforcement powers over HRBs. It sets competence standards for duty holders, issues compliance notices, and can prosecute where breaches occur.

For new HRBs and certain major refurbishments, the BSR manages the gateway process. This applies specifically to higher-risk buildings as defined above, and is a three-stage approval system designed to embed safety decisions at key points in a building's development:

• Gateway 1: Safety considerations are reviewed at the planning application stage.
• Gateway 2: Full plans must be submitted to and approved by the BSR before any construction begins.
• Gateway 3: The BSR must confirm the building is safe before residents can move in.

The gateway process does not apply retrospectively to all existing buildings. If you are managing a recently completed HRB or planning significant structural works, confirm which gateway stage applies to your project before work begins.

What building owners and FM teams need to do now

Understanding who holds legal responsibility brings you directly to the practical question: what does compliance look like day to day, and where does it most commonly break down? In most cases, the answer comes down to records and consistency.

Review building information, inspections, and evidence

The golden thread requirement means every piece of safety-related building information must be traceable and current. This includes design documents, inspection records, maintenance history, risk assessments, and certificates tied to specific assets and locations.

Start by auditing what you currently hold:

• Identify gaps in inspection history or missing certificates
• Confirm your asset register is up to date and linked to the correct building and location data
• Check that safety-critical maintenance is evidenced after completion, not just scheduled in a calendar
• Verify that any changes made to the building over time are reflected in your records

Paper-based or fragmented record-keeping creates real legal risk. If your information is spread across spreadsheets, email threads, and filing cabinets, you cannot easily demonstrate compliance when a BSR review arrives.

Standardise compliance workflows across sites and contractors

For organisations managing multiple buildings or working with subcontractors, consistency is essential. The Act expects you to show that safety management is systematic across your whole operation, not just at individual sites on their best days. This is particularly relevant where subcontractors carry out specialist compliance work on your behalf. If they are not returning consistent evidence, following your safety rules, and meeting your reporting standards, gaps in your golden thread records are almost inevitable.

To build that consistency:

• Define a standard process for how compliance tasks are raised, completed, evidenced, and closed
• Require subcontractors to follow the same evidence and reporting standards as your in-house teams
• Track compliance status across all sites from a single system so nothing falls between teams
• Link compliance tasks to planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedules so safety-critical work is generated and tracked automatically

Without a consistent process, non-compliance in one place quickly becomes an inability to demonstrate compliance anywhere, exactly when it matters most.

How Joblogic supports ongoing building safety compliance

Meeting the Act's requirements means bringing your asset records, compliance workflows, and evidence into one place. Joblogic is a field service management (FSM) platform that engineers use on site to capture that evidence as work happens.

Engineers capture forms, photos, and certificates on the Joblogic mobile app, and that evidence attaches to the job record in real time. PPM schedules generate safety-critical inspections automatically, so visits aren't missed and overdue tasks surface before they become a compliance risk. Across multiple sites, the same PPM engine tracks SLAs and visit frequencies, giving you an evidence trail the Act requires rather than a calendar entry with no proof of completion.

Where subcontractors are involved, their work sits in the same records: structured task lists, evidence tied to the job, and a clear link through to billing and compliance. A safety-critical visit is confirmed by the record itself, not by chasing someone afterwards.

For FM teams managing multiple sites, that evidence rolls up into a single compliance view across your whole estate rather than staying siloed by site. When a BSR review arrives, you can pull a complete, evidenced record rather than rebuild one from scattered sources. Book a demo to speak with a specialist who can walk you through the platform and show how it fits your specific compliance requirements.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an Accountable Person and a Principal Accountable Person?

An AP holds legal responsibility for managing building safety risks in an occupied HRB. A PAP is appointed where multiple APs exist in one building, and takes overall coordination responsibility across the whole structure. For example, a mixed-use block might have separate APs for the residential floors and a shared plant room, with the PAP responsible for registering the building and coordinating safety across both.

Does the Building Safety Act apply to commercial buildings?

The gateway process and AP obligations apply specifically to residential HRBs, since the Act's in-occupation regime is defined by residential unit count. Commercial buildings are subject to separate building regulations and, where relevant, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, though duty holder and competence requirements still apply to anyone involved in higher-risk building work.

What are the penalties for failing to comply with the Building Safety Act?

The BSR can issue compliance notices or pursue prosecution. Penalties include unlimited fines for organisations and up to two years in prison for individuals found in breach. Liability can extend to named directors, managers, or other officers personally, not just the organisation, where a breach happened with their consent or through their neglect.

What does the golden thread of information need to include?

The golden thread must cover all prescribed building safety documents: design records, inspection history, risk assessments, maintenance records, and details of any structural or safety-related changes made over time. It must be held digitally and kept current as the building changes.

When did the key Building Safety Act requirements come into force?

The Act received Royal Assent in April 2022. Registration opened for existing occupied HRBs in April 2023, with a hard deadline of 1 October 2023, after which occupying an unregistered HRB became a criminal offence. The golden thread requirements also came into force on 1 October 2023, and the gateway process for new HRBs was introduced in stages from 2023 onwards.

Does the Building Safety Act affect existing occupied buildings or only new builds?

The Act applies to both. New builds must pass through the gateway process before occupation. Existing occupied HRBs had to be registered with the BSR by 1 October 2023, and must continue to meet the AP appointment, safety case report, and golden thread requirements regardless of when they were originally constructed.