Journey

Building Safety Act for SME contractors

A learning path for small and medium construction businesses working on higher-risk building projects under the Building Safety Act 2022. Covers what the Act means for contractors, your duties on HRB projects, golden thread responsibilities, change control, and handover obligations.

Construction & Property Starting Updated 3 November 2026

Why the Building Safety Act matters for your business

If your construction business works on residential buildings that are 18 metres or higher (or 7+ storeys), the Building Safety Act 2022 affects you directly. The Act creates personal criminal liability for contractors and their directors - non-compliance can lead to unlimited fines and imprisonment.

This learning path breaks it down into the essentials you need to know as a contractor.

Understand the Building Safety Act basics

Before working on any higher-risk building project, understand the regulatory framework. The Act created the Building Safety Regulator (part of the Health and Safety Executive) which oversees a mandatory three-gateway approval process for higher-risk buildings.

New higher-risk building development compliance

Learning path for developers undertaking their first higher-risk building project under the Building Safety Act 2022.

What counts as a higher-risk building

Check whether the building you are working on meets the statutory definition - this determines whether the full BSA regime applies.

A higher-risk building is subject to the Building Safety Act 2022 regulatory regime if it meets specific height or storey thresholds and contains residential units. This definition applies in England only. The definition is assessed both during design and construction, and during the occupation phase.

Height threshold

18 metres or more

Storey threshold (alternative)

7 storeys or more

Residential units requirement

Must contain 2 or more residential units

Geographic scope

England only

Regime commencement

1 October 2023

Latest clarification

Updated 28 May 2025 (roof garden tribunal decision)

Buildings meeting either the height criterion (18 metres) OR the storey criterion (7 storeys) AND containing 2+ residential units are subject to mandatory registration with the Building Safety Regulator before occupation. A building does not need to meet both the height and storey thresholds - meeting one is sufficient if it contains 2 or more residential units.

Building Safety Regulator guidance on HRB criteria (opens in a new tab)
Know your duties as a contractor

The BSA creates specific duties for contractors on higher-risk building projects. If you are appointed as Principal Contractor, you have additional coordination and compliance responsibilities. Even as a sub-contractor, you must cooperate with the Principal Contractor and comply with the construction control plan. Remember too that the building regulations dutyholder and competence duties created under the Act apply to all building work in England with more than one contractor - not just higher-risk buildings.

Building safety duties for contractors

What the Building Safety Act requires of contractors on higher-risk building projects, including competence declarations, cooperation duties, and record-keeping.

Dutyholder roles under the BSA

The Act creates five dutyholder roles. As a contractor, you need to understand where you fit and who else has duties on the project.

The Building Safety Act 2022 and the regulations made under it create several duty holder roles. Principal designer and principal contractor duties apply while building work is designed and carried out. Accountable person duties apply once a higher-risk building is occupied.

Principal Designer

Plans, manages and co-ordinates design work so it complies

Principal Contractor

Plans, manages and co-ordinates building work so it complies

Accountable Person

Holds a legal estate in, or must repair, the common parts (s.72)

Principal Accountable Person

Lead accountable person where there is more than one (s.73)

Registration duty

Principal Accountable Person (s.77)

During occupation, the principal accountable person must register the building with the Building Safety Regulator; it is an offence to occupy a higher-risk building that is not registered (section 77, in force from 1 October 2023). Accountable persons must assess and manage building safety risks, keep information about the building, and report mandatory occurrences. The principal accountable person must also have a residents' engagement strategy (sections 83 to 91).
Understand your golden thread responsibilities

The golden thread is a digital record of building safety information that must be maintained throughout the building's lifecycle. During construction, the Principal Contractor is responsible for maintaining it. All contractors must contribute accurate information to the golden thread.

Create and maintain the golden thread

How to set up and maintain the golden thread digital information management system, including what must be recorded during design and construction.

Golden thread during construction

During design and construction, the golden thread must include design documents, construction plans, change control logs, and competence records.

Under regulation 31 of the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023 the client must create and maintain an electronic facility holding the golden thread information for the work. The principal designer gives the client the designs before the building control application. After building control approval the client adds the fire statement, the approved plans and documents, and the evidence of compliance before construction (or the relevant stage) begins, and adds later changes as they are agreed.

Responsible for the facility

The client

Designs

Supplied by the principal designer before the building control application

Approved documents

Fire statement, approved plans and compliance evidence

Construction control plan

Agreed document

Change control plan and log

Agreed document, with controlled changes recorded

Mandatory occurrence reporting plan

Agreed document

Building regulations compliance statement

Agreed document

Fire and emergency file

Agreed document

Handover

Specified information to the relevant person by completion

At completion the client gives the relevant person (the accountable person, plus the responsible person where there is one) the specified golden thread information under regulation 38, namely a copy of the completion certificate application and the documents that must accompany it. Where partial completion applies, this is due when that part of the building is to be occupied. It is not a handover of the whole facility.

Golden Thread Information guidance (opens in a new tab)

Building Safety Regulator (opens in a new tab)

Golden thread format requirements

The golden thread must be kept in a digital format that is accessible, secure, and version-controlled.

Regulation 7 of the Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023 sets the standards for golden thread information and documents kept by an accountable person. During design and construction, regulation 31 of the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023 sets similar standards for the client's electronic facility. The regulations do not require any particular software, so records can sit across several systems provided they meet the standards.

Storage

Electronic format capable of being transferred electronically

Accuracy

Information must be accurate

Intelligibility

Intelligible to intended readers, with any key needed to read it

Access

Available as soon as reasonably practicable on request

Security

Secure from unauthorised access

Change records

Changes only through procedures recording who and when

Terminology

Consistent where reasonably practicable (construction stage)

Golden Thread Information guidance (opens in a new tab)
Follow the change control process

Once Gateway 2 has been approved, you cannot simply make changes to the design or construction as you would on a non-HRB project. Major changes require BSR approval before work proceeds. Notifiable changes must be reported to the BSR before starting the changed work. Only minor changes can proceed without notification.

Change control after Gateway 2

Understand which changes require BSR approval, which need notification, and which are minor. Getting this wrong can invalidate the Gateway 2 approval.

Once Gateway 2 approval has been granted, you must manage any change to the design or construction of a higher-risk building through a formal change control process. You must comply with the agreed documents throughout the build, assess each change against your change control plan and record it in your change control log.
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) accepts staged Gateway 2 applications, so the design can be submitted and approved in stages rather than all at once.

Major changes

BSR approval needed before any related work

Notifiable changes

Tell BSR before the work starts; no approval needed

Change control plan

Sets out how you identify, assess and manage changes

Staged applications

Accepted at Gateway 2

Change records

Change control log and golden thread

Major change decision

Up to 6 weeks, unless an extension is agreed

Unapproved major change

Criminal offence: unlimited fine and/or imprisonment

Major changes undermine the basis on which the project was approved. They include changes to fire safety measures, structural design, escape routes, the number of storeys, external walls and a material change of use. Notifiable changes could affect compliance with building regulations but are less significant, such as changes to the construction control plan or the layout within a single flat. BSR may ask for more information, and if it says a notifiable change should have been a major change application, you must stop the related work. If you are unsure, ask BSR.

Making changes after Gateway 2 approval - BSR guidance (opens in a new tab)
Prepare for Gateway 3 handover

At completion, the client signs the Gateway 3 application, and the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor each sign a compliance declaration. The client must hand the golden thread information and the application documents to the relevant person, usually the Accountable Person, no later than completion, so the Principal Contractor needs to keep the golden thread complete and give the client what it needs.

Hand over the golden thread at completion

How to prepare the golden thread for handover from construction to occupation, including what records must be transferred and in what format.

Gateway 3 signatory requirements

The client signs the Gateway 3 application. The Principal Contractor and Principal Designer each sign their own compliance declaration, unless they already gave one to the regulator.

Under regulation 40 of the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023, a completion certificate application is made in writing to the Building Safety Regulator and signed by the client. The client signs a statement that, to the best of their knowledge, the work as built complies with all applicable requirements of the building regulations. The principal contractor and the principal designer each sign a compliance declaration, unless they already gave one to the regulator under regulation 29.

Application

Signed by the client

Client statement

Work as built complies with building regulations

Handover statement

Signed by the client and the relevant person

Principal contractor

Signs a compliance declaration

Principal designer

Signs a compliance declaration

Declaration missing

Client gives written reasons

In force

1 October 2023

Geographic scope

England only

The handover statement confirms that the information required by regulation 38 has been given and received. If the client cannot ensure that the principal contractor or principal designer provides a compliance declaration, the application must instead be accompanied by a statement from the client giving the reasons why it has not been provided. Each declaration confirms that the signatory fulfilled their duties under Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010.

Gateway 3 guidance (Building Safety Regulator) (opens in a new tab)
Understand the consequences of non-compliance

The BSA created some of the most severe penalties in UK construction regulation. Prosecution time limits for building regulation contraventions have been removed - the offence is triable either way (prosecution was previously limited to 2 years) - and local authorities can serve section 36 enforcement notices up to 10 years after completion of the work.

Penalties under the Building Safety Act

Criminal penalties include unlimited fines and imprisonment. Directors can be personally prosecuted.

The Building Safety Act 2022 creates criminal offences for non-compliance with the building control and higher-risk building regimes. Companies and individuals can be prosecuted, and officers of a company can be personally liable where an offence is committed with their consent or connivance or is attributable to their neglect (section 40).

Building regulations breach

Either-way offence, up to 2 years on indictment (section 39)

Occupation before completion certificate

Either-way offence, up to 2 years on indictment (section 76)

Unregistered occupied building

Either-way offence, up to 2 years on indictment (section 77)

Compliance notice breach

Either-way offence, up to 2 years on indictment (section 99)

Critical risk contravention

Either-way offence, up to 2 years on indictment (section 101)

False or misleading information

Either-way offence, up to 2 years on indictment (section 24)

Obstructing an authorised officer

Summary offence, fine up to level 3 (section 23)

Special measures

On the regulator's application the First-tier Tribunal can appoint a special measures manager (section 102 and Schedule 7)

The Building Safety Regulator can give an accountable person a compliance notice requiring specified steps or remedial action within a set period (section 99). Failing to comply without reasonable excuse is an offence.

Personal liability for directors and managers

Individual officers of the company can face prosecution where a corporate offence is committed with their consent, connivance, or neglect.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, directors, managers, company secretaries and other similar officers can be personally prosecuted when a corporate body commits a building safety offence. Personal liability arises where the offence was committed with the individual's consent, connivance, or was attributable to their neglect. This extends criminal liability beyond the company to the individuals responsible for its governance and management.

Legislation

Building Act 1984, Section 112A (inserted by Building Safety Act 2022, Section 40)

Effective date

16 January 2024

Consent

Active agreement or approval of the conduct constituting the offence

Connivance

Knowledge of the wrongdoing combined with wilful blindness or tacit encouragement

Neglect

Failure to exercise proper oversight or take reasonable steps to prevent the offence

Persons liable

Directors, managers, company secretaries, or other similar officers of the body corporate

Penalty

Same penalties as corporate body - unlimited fine and/or imprisonment depending on offence

Geographic scope

England only

Critical awareness for senior individuals: This provision means that individuals in leadership positions within construction companies, building management companies, and other corporate bodies subject to building safety requirements cannot shield themselves behind the corporate veil. Where a company commits a building safety offence, personal prosecution of responsible officers is possible if they consented to, connived in, or neglected their duties in a way that contributed to the offence.

Guv’s take

Keep your records. Keep mandatory occurrence reporting information as part of the golden thread, along with comprehensive records of your work on HRB projects, including competence declarations, design information provided, and any changes made during construction.

Key resources for contractors

Official guidance

Building Safety Regulator (opens in a new tab)

BSR homepage with latest guidance and updates for duty holders.

BSR · England and Wales

Golden thread guidance (opens in a new tab)

Government guidance on information management requirements.

BSR · England

Building control approval for higher-risk buildings (opens in a new tab)

BSR guidance on the gateway process including pre-construction and completion stages.

BSR · England

Building Safety Act for SME contractors

Why the Building Safety Act matters for your business

Understand the Building Safety Act basics

New higher-risk building development compliance

Know your duties as a contractor

Building safety duties for contractors

Understand your golden thread responsibilities

Create and maintain the golden thread

Follow the change control process

Prepare for Gateway 3 handover

Hand over the golden thread at completion

Understand the consequences of non-compliance

Key resources for contractors

Official guidance

Next steps

Marketing compliance: PECR and UK GDPR

Set up auto-enrolment for your workplace pension

File your first Self Assessment tax return

Related journeys

Golden thread compliance check

Managing an occupied higher-risk building

New higher-risk building development compliance

Respond to BSR enforcement action