Building Safety Act 2022 — a regime still being switched on

What it requires

The Act is the principal legislative response to the Grenfell Tower fire. It creates a regime for higher-risk buildings, establishes the Building Safety Regulator, introduces gateway approvals during design and construction, and places duties on those responsible for occupied higher-risk buildings — including registration, a safety case, and engagement with residents. Part 5 provides remedies and liabilities for defective work, including building liability orders.

Section 156 amends the Fire Safety Order, strengthening the Responsible Person's duties on recording assessments and arrangements, co-operation between Responsible Persons, and information to residents.

What this means in practice

The single most important thing to understand about this Act is that it is still being switched on. Provisions have commenced in stages since 2022, and some have not commenced at all. A page, a training course or a compliance checklist that treats the Act as wholly operative is wrong, and the error runs in the direction of over-stating duties.

The provision that matters most to fire risk assessors is section 156(4), which would insert article 9A into the Fire Safety Order and introduce a competence requirement for people appointed to assist with a fire risk assessment. It is not in force. Section 156 was not in force at Royal Assent, and subsection (4) appears in no commencement annotation. Article 9A does not exist. Commentary asserting a statutory competence requirement for fire risk assessors is describing something that has not happened.

Competence still matters enormously — the Order's test of a suitable and sufficient assessment turns on it — but it is a professional and evidential question, not yet a discrete statutory qualification requirement.

Where it stands

Partially in force. The commenced provisions we have verified are listed above, as are the two significant tranches that have not commenced.

There are also outstanding effects: the official page carries a warning that changes may be brought into force at a future date, including a tranche under S.I. 2025/1368. The revised text was stated as current to 24 June 2026 when checked, though individual section pages carry different dates — there is no single cut-off for the Act.

A deliberate limit on this page: the record above is what we have verified from the official source. It is not an exhaustive consolidated list of every provision not yet in force. legislation.gov.uk publishes no such list for this Act, and Wales commences separately. For the complete current position on any particular provision, use the official source.