It’s all about building safety

On the same day as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force, the government put forward the Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) Regulations 2023 to Parliament for approval. And none too late, as people must start registering their Higher Risk Residential Buildings (including student accommodation over 18 metres) from April to meet the October 2023 deadline.

The regulations set out the high-level information that the principal accountable person – responsible for the repair of the structure and exterior of the building – must provide to the Building Safety Regulator. It will not contain all the data required in either the golden thread or the registration application; we await details of what else needs to be submitted.

Key building information will enable the Building Safety Regulator to analyse trends and risks in high-rise residential buildings and effectively tranche the call-in and

This is why we’re talking about building safety again; not just because so much is happening in this space, but because what is happening from an information management perspective will have effects beyond the world of building safety. Seeking sustainability outcomes? Need to prove ESG? Optimising preventative maintenance? Productivity, anyone?

To get the principles right, we’re collaborating across the occupation phase. Within the Building Safety Alliance, we have a cross-industry team working on the information framework, ‘the List’, applying the principles of interoperability. This tool will inform what the safety case should be looking like. It is complemented by work in the Government Industry Interoperability Group, which is in the final stages of developing its Code of Practice on interoperability. And Nima, the new name for the UK Bim Alliance, is collaborating to work on the right data schema for fire safety information. Watch this space for future tools for use in the sector – residential or otherwise.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FOCUS GROUP secondary legislation is expected around February

KEY CONTACTS

Sofie Hooper Head of Policy

● 2023 will build our support for colleagues with inclusion, diversity and equity by greater collaboration with other groups

BUILDING SAFETY ACT

● Building registrations need to be complete by October 2023 for all higherrisk residential buildings;

BUILDING SAFETY ALLIANCE

● The golden thread SIG is working on a framework tool for capturing the golden thread and its underpinning principles

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS GUIDANCE PROJECT

● The SFMI standardised scope 3 emissions rating project is hosting a series of webinars in spring/summer

DRAFT HIGHER-RISK BUILDINGS (KEY BUILDING INFORMATION ETC.)

REGULATIONS 2023

● These contain additional information requirements when registering a higherrisk residential building, from 6th April 2023.

SOCIAL VALUE FRAMEWORK

● IWFM and the National Social Value Taskforce are updating the FM plug-in framework to optimise FM’s contribution to social value

GET INVOLVED

● Our policy work is informed by members’ priorities.

Share your views at: policy@iwfm.org.uk