Guidance

Preparing a safety case report

What a principal accountable person must include in a safety case report for a high-rise residential building.

From:
Health and Safety Executive
Published
19 September 2023
Last updated
6 December 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Purpose

A safety case report sets out the building safety risks of a high-rise residential building and how they are being managed.

A high-rise residential building has at least:

  • 7 storeys or is at least 18 metres high
  • 2 residential units 

Building safety risks are the risk of: 

  • the spread of fire or smoke in the building 
  • structural failure of the building 

The building must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) before people live there. These buildings are known as higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act 2022

When you need a safety case report

As the principal accountable person (PAP), you should prepare the safety case report as soon as possible when: 

  • the building is already occupied or becomes occupied 
  • you become the PAP  

You must send BSR a copy of your safety case report: 

To help identify the latest version of your report, include a date, or version number, or both.

Basic building information

In your safety case report include the building’s:

  • name, if it has one
  • full postal address
  • registration number, this begins with ‘HRB’ and is quoted when BSR contacts you
  • build date
  • height
  • number of storeys above ground level
  • floorplans for each type of storey layout
  • location, using a map or photo, or both  

You should also describe the:

  • number and type of residential units, like flats or maisonettes
  • common parts, for example community room, bin store, underground parking
  • resident profile, for example if any residents need help to evacuate or have additional needs, this should be the same as in your resident engagement strategy
  • other building uses which are not residential
  • surrounding area
  • services and utilities provided to the building, including isolation points
  • if the building is supplied with gas, include whether gas is supplied to individual flats and, if so, piping routes 

Changes of use

If the building has changed use since its original construction, include this in your safety case report. For each change of use describe:

  • what the change of use is
  • when the change of use happened
  • how the change is relevant to building safety risks
  • the loading design limits of the building and how to prevent overloading 

Multi-building developments

If the building is one of a number of structures, include a description of the wider development. This should include any shared facilities such as plant rooms and parking.

Missing information

If you have not found all the information about the building you need, you should explain in your report what you did to try and find it.

People responsible for the building

You should include in your report the name and phone number or email address of:

Include details about how the APs share relevant information with each other and with you.

If you or another AP is a resident management company and has appointed a building safety director, include details of the building safety director.

Construction methods and materials

Your report should contain the main structural elements of the building, such as:

  • materials of construction, be clear about where different materials are used in different parts of the building
  • construction methods used, for example, large panel system
  • the primary load bearing methods, for example, pre-cast planks on a steel frame
  • stability, for example, concrete shear walls
  • secondary systems relevant to building safety risks, for example, cladding support systems
  • materials used in other elements, for example, facade, wall attachment, roofing, basement or underground levels
  • foundations and local ground conditions such as flood risk and underground tunnels   

Structural condition of the building

Your report should contain any history of structural problems with the building, describe:

  • the structural problems, and how the problems were identified
  • the actions taken to investigate them
  • any remedial measures taken 

Set out how you make sure that the building stays structurally sound. For a building:

  • more than 3 years old, explain what arrangements are in place
  • less than 3 years old, explain what you plan to do to manage the structure in the future 

Structural surveys and inspections 

If any surveys or inspections have been carried out to assess the current structural condition of the building, include:

  • the type and scope of the structural surveys or inspections
  • the methods used, such as visual or invasive
  • who carried them out
  • why the approach was taken
  • the findings 

If the survey or inspection was done:

  • in-house, explain how you made sure the people involved were competent to carry out the survey or inspection
  • by a third party, explain how you selected them and checked their competence to work on high-rise residential buildings 

Include a summary of the findings and any recommended actions. Include details about actions that:

  • have been completed, and when they were completed
  • have not yet been completed, including timescales for completion and any temporary measures put in place to mitigate risks
  • have not been acted upon and explain why

Include details about how you keep up to date with structural developments, such as signing up for safety alerts.

Information about the structural condition of the building should be included in the building safety risk assessments.

Building work, refurbishment and remediation

Include a summary of any building work, refurbishment or remediation since original construction that could have affected building safety risks. State the year the work was completed.

Large panel system (LPS) buildings 

For LPS buildings, state whether remediation has been carried out since the Ronan Point collapse in 1968. Include a summary of the remediation work, and if there are:

  • records of the work, state if there were any sample checks verifying the work
  • no records of the work, set out how the building’s structural condition has been determined 

If the building has not been remediated, set out the measures taken to prevent structural failure because of LPS weaknesses.

Building work in progress or planned 

If building work is in progress, or is planned to take place, your report should include:

  • a description of the work
  • when the work is expected to be completed
  • the steps taken to manage building safety risks until the work is complete 

Fire safety measures

In your report, state how you know what the building’s fire safety standards are, for example:

  • you know the standards the building was built to
  • you’ve inferred the standards based on factors such as build date, height and type of building
  • the building was constructed using a fire-engineered solution, based on design and agreement with a fire engineer

Describe the building’s main features relevant to the spread of fire, including:

  • external wall systems
  • structural fire protection, such as cladding or fire-resistant coatings
  • prevention and protection measures to manage the risk of fire spread, such as smoke control systems, sprinklers and alarms

If the building has balconies, describe their:

  • type, for example Juliet, cantilever, hung, stacked, internal
  • attachment methods
  • structural and decorative materials
  • dimensions 

Include a summary of any:

Compartmentation

Provide information about the compartmentation in the building including:

  • firefighting shafts including lift shafts and wells
  • fire resistance between floors
  • compartmentation between the basement, if there is one, and the ground floor
  • compartmentation between individual residential units and other areas such as bin stores, plant rooms and car parks
  • fire resistance between residential corridors and flats, between flats, above false ceilings
  • penetrations into residential units such as services and utilities, for example water pipes, gas pipes and electrical cables
  • where the building is mixed-use, compartmentation between residential and non-residential parts of the building

Describe the building’s compartmentation standards, such as for floors, walls, shafts, and load bearing elements.

Explain how you manage any maintenance, or work of third parties, that could affect compartmentation.

Fire doors 

You should show that fire doors are in place in necessary locations, such as entrance doors to flats, stairs and lobbies.  

If you or any other AP carries out a fire door survey, include the:

  • competence of the surveyor
  • the survey’s significant findings, including the AP’s response 

Provide evidence that fire doors and door closers are regularly inspected to ensure they work properly and remain in good condition.

Methods of smoke control

Describe the methods of smoke control in the building. These could include:

  • natural smoke control systems
  • mechanical smoke ventilation systems
  • pressure differential systems 

Escape routes

Describe the number of escape routes, along with travel distances and any dead ends.

Stairs

Provide information about the staircases in the building, including:

  • the number of staircases
  • if they are firefighting or escape stairs, and if they are internal or external
  • if they serve all floors and flats, or just some
  • if they serve areas shared with other blocks such as basements and car parks
  • the width, including whether the width changes  

Detection and warning systems

Include details of any fire detection and warning systems.

Sprinklers or other suppression systems

Describe any suppression systems, such as their:

  • locations and coverage
  • specifications, such as activation temperature, maintenance and testing requirements
  • water supply
  • power supply 

Building safety risk assessments

Your report should contain a summary of the building safety risk assessments carried out by each AP. 

You can read the guidance about assessing building safety risks. It tells you what APs should cover in a building safety risk assessment and how to carry them out.

Describe how the risk assessments were carried out

Include in your report:

  • the risk assessment processes used to identify building safety risks, such as HAZID or bow tie
  • who was involved in the risk assessments, their competence and their specialist expertise 

Describe the findings and recommendations

Include a summary of the significant findings and recommended actions from the risk assessments.

Include a description of the:

  • possible safety risk scenarios identified by each AP
  • likelihood of each scenario happening
  • consequences of each scenario if it did happen 

Describe how building safety risks are managed 

Your report should describe:

Include details about the recommended actions following the risk assessments that have:

  • been completed, and when they were completed
  • not yet been completed, state when they will be completed and what you have done to keep risks under control until the recommendations can be met
  • not been acted upon and explain why 

The summary of the building’s safety management systems should describe how actions to manage risks are tracked and completed properly and on time.

Emergency plan

Set out the emergency plan in place for the building, including:

  • the evacuation strategy
  • how the emergency plan has been communicated to residents
  • how residents needs have been taken into account, for example, if any residents need help to evacuate or have any additional needs
  • how residents should respond to emergency situations

You can read guidance about reducing the severity of an incident if one occurs. It tells you more about evacuation strategies and how to communicate them to residents.

If the current evacuation strategy is different to the original design intent of the building, include an explanation of each change and the reason for that change.

Fire and emergency services

Provide details of the facilities for use by the fire service, including:

  • firefighting shafts and any firefighting lifts
  • risers and fire mains including type
  • hydrant locations
  • fire service vehicle access
  • site drawings 

Include a description of the information shared with the emergency services to support their emergency planning. To understand more about this read the guidance about the information APs must share with the fire and rescue authority.

Review the plan

Include how you will review the emergency arrangements in place to make sure they remain effective. This should include scheduling regular testing and maintenance checks.

Safety management systems

Include a summary of the safety management systems in place that APs are using to manage building safety risks.   

Continuous improvement   

In your safety case report, include a statement which confirms your commitment to continually improve the management of building safety risks. If you have one, you can also include an action or improvement plan that demonstrates how you plan to improve building safety.

Roles and responsibilities

Describe the main building safety management roles, such as fire safety manager, and include:

  • who currently carries out those roles
  • their responsibilities
  • how their competence has been checked and what you do to make sure their competence stays up to date

Maintenance and inspection work

Describe how you maintain and inspect the building, giving specific examples and schedules, for managing:

  • routine maintenance work
  • inspections of the building and the physical controls in place that manage building safety risks, (include controls that are only used occasionally, such as controls that operate automatically if a fire alarm is triggered)
  • the progress of fixing issues that are identified by maintenance or inspections 

Describe how urgent or emergency work is managed, which includes breakdowns, damage or actions identified by other inspections.

Describe the systems that you, and other APs for the building, use to assure the:

  • competence of designers and contractors that work on the buildings
  • quality of materials used
  • how the building safety risks are assessed and kept under control while works are being done

Managing changes

Describe how you make sure that building safety is protected when you make changes:

  • in the building
  • to how the building is managed
  • to how your organisation is managed

Include:

  • the type of changes that you will manage
  • how you will check and assess how changes might affect building safety risks, both during and after the change is completed
  • how you will make sure that controls are put back once a change has been completed
  • how you will make sure the change has been completed as intended

Monitoring performance

Include evidence that demonstrates how you monitor the management of building safety risks. Describe:

  • one or more examples of what you monitor, and how you assess performance
  • what you would do if performance goes down
  • how performance information is reported to senior managers

Reviewing safety management systems

Describe how and when the:

  • effectiveness of each system is reviewed
  • how you make sure any changes to each system are implemented

Updating your safety case report

You should update your safety case report, for example, when:

  • improvement work is carried out to manage building safety risks
  • work on the building impacts building safety risks

Tell BSR about changes to your report

You must tell BSR as soon as possible if you update your safety case report to include:

  • new or increased building safety risks that have been identified
  • further measures taken to manage risks

BSR will ask you for:

  • the date the update to the safety case report was made
  • a brief description of the update
  • the reason for making the update 

BSR may ask you to provide the updated safety case report. There is a charge you will need to pay if BSR decides to review the updated safety case report. This is set out in the BSR charging scheme (on hse.gov.uk).

Updates to this page

Published 19 September 2023
Last updated 6 December 2024 + show all updates

  1. This guidance has been updated to include clearer information about what a principal accountable person must include in their safety case report.

  2. The information in the 'Your report must contain' section has been updated. General readability improvements have also been made to all sections.

  3. Information added about telling BSR if you've updated your safety case report.

  4. First published.

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