The Building Safety Regulator will establish a system of mandatory occurrence reporting for duty-holders. Mandatory occurrence will be defined as any structural safety or fire safety related event which is perceived to represent a significant risk to life in multi-occupied residential buildings within the scope of the new regime.

During the design and construction phases, the Client will be obligated to set up a functional internal framework, which the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor must submit occurrences to. In the occupation phase, it will be a statutory function of the Building Safety Manager to set up a similar framework during occupation and to report occurrences into it themselves. Guidance will be issued detailing the occurrences and setting out the exact requirements of reporting.

Duty-holders will be encouraged to report structural and fire safety occurrences, which are not classified as mandatory occurrences under this new reporting regime, to a voluntary reporting scheme. The purpose of which will be to complement mandatory reporting by capturing and sharing information about structural and fire safety occurrences for both the Building Safety Regulator and industry. The Building Safety Regulator will be responsible for establishing the voluntary reporting system. In line with the Independent Review’s recommendation, the intention is to deliver voluntary reporting through the expansion of the existing Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety scheme.

The Building Safety Regulator will also be made a prescribed person under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. This will afford workers protection from detrimental treatment or victimisation from their employer when making disclosures in the public interest; more commonly known as whistleblowing protection.