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Building Safety Act turns up the heat on dampers
The Building Safety Act will intensify scrutiny of the way fire dampers and smoke control dampers are tested and maintained, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA)
F
ire safety in buildings will be scrutinised like never before as the requirements of new legislation that came into force last April
take hold. Hailed as the biggest change to building safety culture since the Second World War, the provisions of the Building Safety Act will shake up almost every aspect of building services projects. People are understandably nervous about the
implications, but BESA is urging its members and the wider industry to see this as positive change. The new legal framework created by the Act gives contractors greater power (and responsibility) to call out poor quality and unsafe work wherever they see it and reinforces the message to clients that they should only employ properly qualified, competent, and certified engineers. Those firms that go to the trouble of ensuring their workforce is properly trained so their work complies with the Building Regulations are going to find their services in greater demand – not least around fire damper and smoke damper installation, testing and maintenance. Like many aspects of building engineering,
dampers are often ignored because they are hidden from view. So, BESA believes that the Act is a huge opportunity to remind building operators of their responsibility for these critical safety products which are central to the fire safety strategies in thousands of buildings.
10 February 2023
Left: Technical director Graeme Fox BESA
Far left: Ventilation contractor and head of BESA’s Health & Wellbeing
in Buildings Group Nathan Wood
Frustrated Technical director Graeme Fox said the new legal provisions of the Act “can’t come fast enough” and would be welcomed by most building services contractors who had grown frustrated by the failure of people to act on their concerns. “At Grenfell people working on the refurbishment chose not to flag up problems they saw, and which led to the disaster. That came out clearly during the public inquiry,” said Fox. “Our members come across this scenario repeatedly. It is particularly glaring around fire damper inspections where failures have been discovered but the information not passed on by those further up the supply chain to avoid upsetting the client or incurring extra costs. “The Act means contractors are legally bound to report problems and the client must be able to
demonstrate how they acted on that information. This is long overdue,” he added. Ventilation contractor Nathan Wood believes that
enforcing this element of the legislation will be extremely important in coming years. “It is very difficult sometimes in a commercial
relationship to be critical of your client, but that conversation becomes easier if the legal position is clear and it is backed up by enforcement,” said Wood, who is chair of BESA’s Health & Wellbeing in Buildings group. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE), which is managing the new office of the Building Safety Regulator overseeing the Act, has confirmed that secondary legislation will create a framework for Mandatory Occurrence Reports (MORs). Contractors will be able to use to these to
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