Buildings: Safety
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of whether building safety regulations are being applied proportionately to low-rise, low-occupancy buildings that have historically met all safety standards and fire service inspections.
Answered by Samantha Dixon
In the initial stages, a building control application is usually required for new buildings. This is reviewed by building control bodies to ensure compliance with building regulations.
During the build process, progress on site may be checked and monitored, using a number of methods, including on site visits, where the inspector may ask the builders on site to open up parts of the build in order to check compliance, and give advice if needed.
At the end of the build process, if a building complies with relevant regulations, a completion certificate will be issued.
Building control bodies conduct checks to assure building work or material changes of use are compliant with the building regulations. However, ultimately, it is the responsibility of the person carrying out the work (and, where appointed, the principal designer and principal contractor) to ensure building work complies with these requirements.
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