Principal Designer, Building Regs

01Two duties, two appointments

The Building Safety Act 2022 created the Building Regulations Principal Designer. It is a different role from the CDM Principal Designer, under different legislation and with different duties. The CDM role manages health and safety coordination. The Building Regulations role coordinates and manages compliance across the design disciplines, and evidences it. We treat it as an appointment in its own right, built on our CDM experience but not merged with it.

02Held start to finish

We are appointed under the Building Regulations 2010, as amended by the Building Safety Act, for the full duration of the project, through construction as well as design. We start by reviewing what is already in place and where the duty sits, then manage compliance from pre-application through design and construction to completion and handover. Competence records, decisions and compliance evidence are kept from appointment in connected systems we built for this role, so nothing is assembled in a hurry when Building Control asks for it.

03What we leave to others

• The CDM Principal Designer role, which is a separate appointment
• Structural and fire engineering
• SAP, overheating and acoustic calculations
• Principal Contractor duties and Building Control fees
• Gateway management on higher-risk buildings, unless agreed