Building Safety Act 2022 dutyholder, UK wide
Building Regulations Principal Designer
Since 1 October 2023 almost every project with more than one contractor has needed a principal designer appointed in writing for Building Regulations compliance, a legal role separate from the one you already appoint under CDM. AL23 Safety takes that Part 2A appointment or supports the designer who holds it, on projects UK wide.
What is a Building Regulations principal designer?
A compliance dutyholder, not a health and safety co-ordinator
The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 inserted a new Part 2A into the Building Regulations 2010, at regulations 11A to 11Q. It created a dutyholder regime of client, designers, principal designer, contractors and principal contractor. The Part 2A principal designer plans, manages and monitors the design work so that the design, if built, will comply with all applicable requirements of the Building Regulations.
That is a compliance role. It covers structure, fire safety, ventilation, drainage, energy, accessibility and everything else in the Regulations. It is not about site risk, welfare or construction phase planning.
This is a different legal role from the CDM 2015 principal designer
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 principal designer is concerned with the health and safety of construction work and of those who build, use and maintain the structure. Part 2A is concerned with whether the building complies with the Building Regulations. The two regimes are cumulative rather than substitutional. Both appointments must exist where both regimes bite. The same organisation may hold both roles and often should. The client must still satisfy itself of competence for each role separately and appoint for each role separately in writing. AL23 already delivers the health and safety role through our CDM consultant services, which makes the two-hat arrangement straightforward under one contract.
Who needs one
Who has the duty and when it bites
- Any client for building work where there is more than one contractor or where it is reasonably foreseeable there will be. The client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing.
- The regime applies to all building work, not only higher-risk buildings. A domestic extension with two trades is caught in the same way as a 20 storey residential block.
- Domestic clients are treated differently. Where a domestic client does not appoint, the duties fall by default onto the contractor or the principal contractor.
- Where only one contractor is involved the duties still exist, sitting with the designer and contractor rather than with principal dutyholders.
- Higher-risk building projects carry the same Part 2A duties plus the gateway regime. A higher-risk building is at least 18 metres in height or at least 7 storeys and contains at least two residential units, in England.
- If you cannot evidence a written appointment, you do not have a compliant one. An assumption or a fee proposal is not enough.
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
The Building Safety Act 2022 gave the power. The Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 did the work, inserting regulations 11A to 11Q into the Building Regulations 2010 with effect from 1 October 2023. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 continues unchanged alongside it. For higher-risk buildings the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023 add the gateways. Read them together. They ask different questions about the same project.
Regulations 11A to 11E, appointment and scope
Definition of the dutyholders and the requirement for written appointment of a principal designer and principal contractor where more than one contractor is involved.
Regulations 11F to 11I, competence
Competence means skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours. For an organisation it also means organisational capability. Competence must be verified before appointment, not discovered afterwards.
Client duties
Suitable arrangements for planning, managing and monitoring the project so that the work complies, plus building information, co-operation and maintenance of those arrangements throughout.
Principal designer duties
Plan, manage and monitor the design work, co-ordinate matters relating to design so the work complies and share information with the principal contractor and other designers.
Co-operation and information
Every dutyholder must co-operate, share information and report anything suggesting the work will not comply.
What the service covers
The role itself or assurance that your appointed designer is doing it properly
- Acting as your appointed Building Regulations principal designer under regulations 11A to 11Q, with a written scope and a clear boundary against the CDM role.
- Where you already have a principal designer, an independent review of whether the appointment, the competence evidence and the monitoring records would survive challenge.
- Drafting the written appointment itself so that the instrument names the correct regime rather than recycling a CDM appointment letter.
- A skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours assessment for the individuals proposed, benchmarked against PAS 8671:2022 and the core criteria in BS 8670-1:2024.
- An organisational capability assessment covering resources, systems, supervision and the ability to sustain the role for the whole design period.
- A client arrangements document setting out how design is planned, managed and monitored and how non-compliance is escalated.
- A design compliance tracker mapping each applicable requirement to a named designer and a piece of evidence.
- Design review meetings minuted to record compliance decisions and the reasoning behind them, not only actions.
- Interfaces with the fire engineering package, where compliance arguments most often turn qualitative. Our fire strategy team sits in the same building.
- Information flow into the golden thread and support at Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 where the project is a higher-risk building.
- Written notification to you and, where relevant, to the building control authority if the design cannot be made compliant as drawn.
Our process
Appoint correctly, then monitor for real
- 01
Role clarification
We map every dutyholder against both regimes and identify which appointments exist, which are missing and which name the wrong role.
- 02
Competence evidence
We assemble or assess the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours file for the individuals and the organisational capability file for the practice.
- 03
Appointment and arrangements
We issue the written appointment and the client arrangements document, then agree the programme checkpoints where compliance is confirmed.
- 04
Planning, managing and monitoring
We run the tracker through design development, chair compliance reviews and record decisions with the reasoning attached.
- 05
Handover
We close out the tracker, confirm the residual assumptions the contractor must satisfy and pass the compliance record to the principal contractor.
What you get
A record showing compliance was managed, not assumed
- A written Part 2A principal designer appointment naming the correct statutory role.
- A competence file covering the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours test and organisational capability, referenced to PAS 8671:2022 and BS 8670-1:2024.
- A client arrangements document that satisfies the client duty to plan, manage and monitor.
- A design compliance tracker held live through the project and issued as a final record.
- Minuted design compliance reviews with decisions, assumptions and outstanding items.
- A completion statement summarising how the design was managed towards compliance and what remains with the contractor.
What we need from you
Enough to test the appointment triggers
- The current design programme, the design responsibility matrix and the drawing register.
- Details of every contractor and designer engaged or expected so that the appointment triggers can be tested.
- Any existing CDM appointments so that we can show where the regimes overlap.
- The building control route in use and whether the building is a higher-risk building.
- A named client representative with authority to make appointment decisions.
Why AL23 Safety
Two regimes understood, not conflated
Expert and chartered
The role is led by a Chartered Building Engineer and Health and Safety Professional, which is the combination Part 2A calls for.
One team, three disciplines
Fire engineering, fire safety and health and safety in-house. The hardest compliance arguments are not subcontracted out of sight.
Accountable
If a design cannot be made compliant as drawn, we write that down and tell the client rather than signing off to keep a programme moving.
UK wide
We act on projects across the UK from our Manchester base.
Talk it through before you appoint
A wrong appointment is harder to unwind than a slow one
Most of the problems we see are appointment problems rather than design problems. Ten minutes on the phone will usually tell you whether your current arrangement covers both regimes or only one.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usNo. They are separate legal roles created by separate legislation with separate objectives. CDM 2015 addresses the health and safety of construction work. Part 2A addresses compliance with the Building Regulations. Both appointments are needed where both regimes apply, each with its own written appointment and its own competence check.
Yes. Information flows better and the design team deals with one point of contact. The client still has to satisfy itself of competence for each role separately and record each appointment separately in writing.
No. This is the most common misunderstanding. Regulations 11A to 11Q apply to all building work. Higher-risk buildings carry these duties plus the gateway regime on top.
Regulations 11F to 11I define competence as skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours, with organisational capability added for organisations. There is no licence or register. PAS 8671:2022 sets the framework for individual principal designers and BS 8670-1:2024 sets the core criteria for building safety competence. Both are voluntary. Both are the de facto benchmark and we work to them.
Fees follow the design programme length, the number of designers to co-ordinate, the complexity of the fire and structural strategies and whether the project is a higher-risk building. The role runs for the whole design period rather than as a one-off deliverable. We price it as a duration. Call us with the programme and we will scope it properly.
The duties do not disappear. On a project with more than one contractor and no appointment the client is in breach. The default provisions can push duties onto the contractor. Building control can also challenge the arrangements, which is a poor place to discover the gap.
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