RIBA this week released its official response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report. The initial inquiry set in motion legislative changes designed to deliver a culture shift towards demonstrable competency across the industry, underpinned by new statutory duties for designers, contractors and their clients.
Members are encouraged to take stock of the regulatory changes and be part of the move towards greater competence and, therefore, greater compliance.
Here are six ways in which members can make sure that they have an understanding of the new building safety regime and how it affects all designers’ duties.
1. Read and understand RIBA’s Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report response
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report was published in September 2024, but the initial inquiry had already informed the landmark changes to working practices introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022.
RIBA has welcomed the thorough examination of the causes of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and has accepted the report’s findings. It has already made significant changes to standards and guidance since the fire, and has also committed to review all of these in light of the report.
Read RIBA’s full response to the Phase 2 report.
2. Check your understanding of the legislative regime
Re-reading and digesting the Building Regulations is a great way for an architect to continue their competence and compliance journey.
While the changes introduced under the Regulations are extensive, members are encouraged to read, digest and then ask questions, whether that be in forums, round-tables and other public meetings in order to share their journey to competence with peers and attending experts.
3. Top up your competence
Competence is one of the most important words of the new year for architects, with a real industry push for all architects and those in the wider construction industry to become more competent.
To this end, all practicing RIBA Chartered Members are required to undertake a minimum of 35 hours of relevant CPD each year to maintain professional competence of which at least 20 hours should be spent on the 10 mandatory RIBA Core Curriculum CPD topics. The mandatory topics Health, Safety and Wellbeing and Legal, Regulatory and Statutory Compliance have particular relevance to the new building safety regime.
The accredited Principal Designer course has been specially developed to give principal designers the knowledge and experience necessary to carry out the role at a professionally agreed standard of competency. Completion of the course and an architect’s attendance certificate can be used to demonstrate to a client, stakeholder or external body that they have a thorough understanding of the principal designer role. However, it should be noted that attendance of CPD alone is not likely to provide sufficient evidence of competence.
RIBA encourages all members to read the RIBA Principal Designer Guide by Dieter Bentley-Gockmann (as well as a short, free-to-members course on RIBA Academy). Since its launch, the guide has established itself as the definitive guidance required to understand the Principal Designer duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010, including guidance relevant to higher-risk building projects.
RIBA’s ongoing Professional Features relating to the Building Safety Act have also become a useful resource that provide guidance on topics within the new building safety regime, often responding directly to specific member and industry questions and discussions.
4. Demonstrate your competence to clients
There are are various ways in which to demonstrate competence to a client.
Under the new building safety regime, all clients that have a notifiable building project now have a duty to ensure that design work is adequately resourced. They must also specifically take all reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that they are appointing a competent Building Regulations Principal Designer (BRPD). The RIBA Principal Designer Register allows individual RIBA Chartered Members in the UK to demonstrate that they meet the competence criteria to serve as principal designers as defined under the CDM Regulations and the Building Safety Act.
Designers can apply to join the register at higher-risk buildings level, the general level or the domestic client level.
Candidates take a knowledge test, and upon passing this test they must submit a written submission evidencing skills knowledge and experience against the RIBA Competence Criteria. Additionally, candidates for the general and higher-risk competency levels must also attend a competence assessment interview. Details on how to join the register at the appropriate competency level are set out in the RIBA Principal Designer Register Handbook.
Elsewhere, the Health and Safety Test is one of the mandatory competences for RIBA Chartered Members from this year.
Under the new RIBA CPD Compliance Policy, from 1 January 2025 practicing Chartered Members must take and pass the test if their work requires them (and their organisations) to carry out “designer’s duties” under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and the Building Regulations (in England).
Alongside the test, which was relaunched in May 2024, RIBA expanded and updated the RIBA Health and Safety Guide.
5. Be confident in the services you provide
With the new regulatory changes introduced under the Building Regulations, and a focus on competence within the industry, it’s important to display the necessary behaviours in order to assess and understand the extent and limitations of an architect’s competence as an individual or an organisation.
This means having the confidence and willingness to decline work where it falls outside the scope of an architect’s competence (including organisational capability) and/or to seek the advice and support of others or further develop your expertise to address any gap (which may also need to be agreed with the Client).
Assessing competence should be an established procedural process for each project and should be revisited with any brief, team or regulatory change that may affect the individual or organisation’s competence to fulfil existing duties as part of a project appointment.
Reference to behaviours is threaded through the RIBA Principal Designer Practice Note and the BSI Built Environment Competence Standards.
6. Be clear about your roles and responsibilities
The Phase 2 report stated that greater clarity when it comes to roles and responsibilities within a project was drastically needed. RIBA has provided help to architects in this area.
The RIBA Practice Note on the Building Regulations Principal Designer (BRPD) role, published in November 2024, sets out best practice guidance for members and RIBA Chartered Practices for the role under both CDM 2015 regulations and revised Building Regulations. It’s written supporting that a practice acting as the designer in control of the design process is best placed to act as the BRPD.
The note covers approaches to competence and the roles and responsibilities of the BRPD. It also looks at how some scenarios that may divert from ‘best practice’ should be dealt with, such as when an incoming principal designer takes over from a previous principal designer.
RIBA's Building Safety Act-based Professional Features offer complementary discussions on scenarios that give rise to frequently asked questions, such as:
What are the differences for architects between the CDM Principal Designer role and the Building Regulations equivalent? The CDM Principal Designer is responsible for planning, managing and monitoring the pre-construction phase and coordinating matters relating to health and safety during the pre-construction phase. The Building Regulations Principal Designer is required to plan, manage and monitor the design work during the design stage of a project to co-ordinate matters, so that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that the design is such that if the building work to which the design relates were built in accordance with that design the building work would be in compliance with all relevant requirements. This will involve coordinating the design work of other designers, as well as your own where you may also be a designer, to achieve compliance.
When should a Principal Contractor become a Principal Designer in design and build projects? The RIBA Practice Note recommends that when the design team is novated, the main contractor should be appointed both Principal Designer and Principal Contractor by the client, following the principle that when the Principal Contractor is the designer with control over design work, they should be appointed Principal Designer with the proviso that they must be competent to take on the role.
What do architects need to know about the important differences between Principal Designer and Lead Designer roles? Dieter Bentley-Gockmann, author of the RIBA Principal Designer’s Guide, explains how the Lead Designer’s primary duty is to see that all aspects of the project design are coordinated, just as it has been in the past, while the new BRPD (a statutory appointment) is responsible for monitoring and coordinating design work to ensure compliance with relevant requirements of Building Regulations.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a professional feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Legal, regulatory and statutory compliance.
As part of the flexible RIBA CPD programme, professional features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated RIBA CPD core curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as a RIBA Chartered Member.
