Roles And Responsibilities In The Building Safety Act

Aspect	Accountable Person (AP)	Principal Accountable Person (PAP)	Duty Holder
Definition	Organisation or individual who owns or has legal obligation to repair any common parts of a building	Each building must have one clearly identifiable AP, known as the PAP.	Various roles during design, construction, and refurbishment phases
Number per building	Can be multiple	Only one	Multiple, depending on project phase
Primary responsibility	Manage structural and fire safety risks in the parts of the building they are responsible for	Overall safety management for structural and fire safety for the whole building	Ensure competence of workforce and building regulations compliance are met during their phase of work
Timing of role	Ongoing, during occupation	Ongoing, during occupation	During design, construction, or refurbishment
Registration duties	None specific	Must register the building with BSR	None specific
Safety case	Contribute to safety case and ‘golden thread’	Prepare and update the building's safety case and ‘golden thread’	Contribute to the "golden thread" of information
Resident engagement	Participate in resident engagement	Prepare and update resident engagement strategy	Limited direct resident engagement
Reporting	Report safety occurrences to BSR	Operate mandatory occurrence reporting system	Report issues within their phase of work
Complaints handling	Participate in complaints system	Operate a complaints system	Handle complaints related to their work phase
Oversight of others	No oversight of other APs	Oversee all APs' safety management	Oversee work within their area of responsibility
Building assessment	Contribute information	Apply for building assessment certificate	Not typically involved
Examples	Freeholder, landlord, management company	Housing association, local authority	Designer, contractor, client
Legal accountability	Cannot delegate legal obligations	Cannot delegate legal obligations	Cannot delegate legal obligations Responsible for their phase of work

The main difference is that the accountable person has ongoing responsibility for an occupied building, while duty holders have responsibilities during specific phases of a building's creation or major renovation. However, duty holders responsible for building works must maintain detailed records of their competence and compliance for the projects undertaken, as legislation like the Defective Premises Act may require records of work completed up to 30 years ago. It's worth noting that in some cases, an entity might be both an accountable person and a duty holder, depending on their role and the stage of the building's lifecycle.

Roles And Responsibilities Under The BSA

What are each Key Duty Holders responsibilities under the Building Safety Act?

Client Responsibilities:

Principal Designer Responsibilities:

Principal Contractor Responsibilities:

What are competence requirements for Duty Holders?

What To Read Next...

Building Safety Act Gateways

Competence Requirements

Enforcement Bodies

Occurrence Reporting

Building Control Explained

Devolved Nations in BSA

Latest Building Safety Act News From BESA

Updated damper guidance critical to fire ...

Building Safety Act awareness is rising, ...

Engineers solving the wrong problems, says ...

BESA Group companies