The first meeting of the Building Advisory Committee (BAC) took place this week. 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 residential 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.”
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.
Notes to Editors
- The members of BAC are: Richard Blyth, Hywel Davies, Andrew Lawrence, Simon Lay, Nick Mellor, Paul Mooney, Andy Mullins, Paul Nash, Suzannah Nichol, Benjamin Ralph, Niall Rowan, Aman Sharma, and Martin Taylor.
- Members have been appointed on an independent basis on their ability to represent stakeholders across their respective areas of the built environment. They are not representing the company or organisation that they work for.
- Members of the BAC will serve for a period of three years and are drawn from diverse industry backgrounds. Their collective experience and knowledge will ensure that BAC provides insightful advice and information to the BSR to deliver sustainable, positive, and practical improvements across the built environment.
- The work of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) – established to advise the Secretary of State for Local Government, Housing and Communities on matters relating to building regulations will continue until the committee has been consulted on the necessary secondary legislation. BAC will start to provide technical advice to BSR from this point onwards.
Follow this news feed: HSE