BRPD

Building Regulations Principal Designer Role Under the BSA

BCAL Consulting have offered a dedicated service to clients to discharge their responsibility to appoint a Principal Designer role under the Building Safety Act 2022, a position that differs from the Principal Designer role under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, since it became mandatory in October 2023. Since then, BCAL have accumulated an impressive portfolio of projects for a range of different projects, bringing a degree of confidence to our clients that they are in safe hands.

With it being a role still classified as being in its infancy, BCAL are amongst very few who can claim to hold a genuine level of expertise in these regulations and have developed the BRPD role in a particular way that also imbues the ethos of the company to simplify the design progress rather than convolute it. We remind the project stakeholders from the outset that this is a role that focusses on ‘Building Safety Aspects’ of design and construction, a fact that may easily be lost if the role is relegated to a mere tick box exercise equalised across the entire Approved Documents.

At BCAL we understand that both the Designer and Principal Designer roles have must have adequate ‘influence, active interest and control’ of the design of any given project. The key distinction is that the ‘Designers’ must have sufficient technical expertise, experience, and qualifications to discharge their professional duties to ensure their aspect of the design is compliant with the Building Regulations whereas the ‘Principal Designer’ must demonstrate a broader understanding of the Building Regulations and construction in general so that they can manage and coordinate the overall design process (focussing on compliance with the Building Regulations).

Essentially the design responsibility imparted upon each Designer is unchanged under the Building Regulations Amendments, something that BCAL reminds the design team from the outset in addition to clarifying any other key aspects of their statutory duties. The spirit of the regulations require increased competency across all facets of the design team and designers must be aware that the introduction of this new PD role is not an opportunity to shed some of their design responsibilities, but instead to draw upon the expertise available to improve the design process.

The PD service at BCAL has been mapped out through a rigorous process of internal development starting in early 2023, which must be followed by all company Principal Designers with the core features summarised as:

The Principal Designer must plan, manage, and monitor the design work, ensuring that the design if built would comply with the building regulations
Ensure that they and the designers in the team, co-operate, communicate, and coordinate their work with the Client, the Principal Contractor and other Designers
Liaise with the Principal Contractor and share information relevant to the building work
Change Control Plan/Recording of Design Changes
Collation of Fire Safety Information
Demonstration of Competency to the Client

In many ways, the general approach across the CDM PD and BR PD roles are quite similar and BCAL have been able to draw upon their expertise in the CDM regulations spanning back to their inception.

BCAL now employ several dedicated and qualified Principal Designers from a truly diverse range of design backgrounds including Architectural, Civil and Structural, Project and Site Management. Each project is carefully assessed before assigning the most appropriate resource to it.

Our high-profile client list includes: