The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA), together with the suite of secondary legislation made under the Act, has established a more stringent building control regime for higher-risk buildings (HRBs). This new regime has now been in force in England since 1 October 2023, when the Building Safety Regulator became the building control authority for all HRBs in England.

Further, the new 'dutyholder and competence' regime – which applies to all projects in England that require building control approval with only limited exemptions – also came into force on 1 October 2023.

Neither of these regimes currently applies in Wales. The Welsh Government previously announced in its BSA Handbook for Wales: Design and Construction Phase that it would introduce requirements relating to dutyholders and the HRB building control regime by autumn 2025, and has now published a Consultation document setting out its detailed proposals in respect of the new building control regime for HRBs.

We explore some of the main takeaways from the consultation below, and the key differences from the HRB regime in England.

What is a higher-risk building in Wales?

While parts of the BSA apply in Wales, in many instances it empowers the Welsh Government to implement secondary legislation setting out the building safety regime for Wales, which may differ from England.

For instance, The Building Safety (Description of Higher-Risk Building) (Design and Construction Phase) (Wales) Regulations 2023 define a “higher-risk building” for the purposes of the design and construction phase as a building that is at least 18 metres in height or has at least seven storeys and also contains at least one residential unit (or is a hospital, care home or children's home).

This can be contrasted with the HRB regime in England, which requires two or more residential units.

New HRB building control regime for Wales

The current consultation sets out the Welsh Government's proposals for a more stringent regulatory regime for the design and construction of HRBs. The consultation closes on 25 May 2025 and details of the regime will be set out in secondary legislation after that date.

Amongst other things, the consultation confirms the following proposals:

  • A dutyholder regime, similar to the regime in place in England, will be introduced. The consultation acknowledges the "initial feedback" that " duplicating the titles Principal Designer and Principal Contractor is causing issues as a project will have a Principal Designer under CDM and also a Principal Designer under building regulations, yet these dutyholders may be different people or entities." However, it proposes to retain the titles to align with other regulatory frameworks including that in England.

  • The building control authority for HRBs in Wales will be the relevant local authority (LA). This differs from the HRB regime in England which is overseen by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), sitting within the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). The likely quantity of applications for HRBs in Wales is very small compared to England so the additional caseload for LAs is less significant.

    The consultation clarifies that since April 2024, it has "only been local authorities that can be the building control body for higher-risk building work in Wales". As part of their building control function, LAs will work with fire and rescue authorities and other external technical experts as required.


  • To overcome possible conflicts of interest when a local authority carries out higher-risk building work that it is overseen by its own building control team, the proposal is that the work should be overseen by an alternate local authority.

  • Building control approval applications, i.e. Gateway 2 (GW2) will –as in England – be a "hard stop" point where it will be an offence for the dutyholders to start work without approval. The application will need to be submitted to the LA in writing and signed by the client (applicant). The client may be assisted by the Principal Contractor and Principal Designer in preparing the application / submitting it on the client's behalf.

  • The GW2 application will require a number of prescribed documents to be submitted, including a signed declaration confirming that the client is content that the Principal Designer (or sole or lead designer) and Principal Contractor (or sole contractor) fulfils the dutyholder requirements.

  • Once GW2 has been granted, in line with existing practice in both Wales and England, the client is required to give notice to the building control authority before starting work on site. Currently, in Wales, this notice must be given at least two days before the work can begin (which can be contrasted with the requirement in England for notice to be given to the BSR at least five days in advance). The consultation is seeking views as to whether this should remain at two days in Wales or be increased to five days, in line with England.

  • There will be similar change control and mandatory occurrence reporting processes to those which are in place in England. Their purpose is to ensure that dutyholders carefully consider the implications of changes from their original building control approval plan before they are made, and that all controlled changes are recorded, and plans and prescribed documents are updated to reflect the building work ‘as built’ rather than ‘as-designed’.

  • The proposed statutory time limits for GW2 decisions by LAs – which is the same as the time limits in place in England – is 12 weeks for new HRBs, and 8 weeks for work to existing HRBs.

  • Completion certificate applications (i.e. Gateway 3 (GW3)) will again be a "hard stop" point. The application must be signed by the client regardless of whether they make it, or it is made on their behalf.

  • The GW3 application must contain certain information which will form part of the 'Golden Thread' of building information to be handed over to the responsible person as defined in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

  • As in England, the GW3 application must include compliance statements from all the dutyholders, including a statement from the client confirming that to the best of their knowledge the higher-risk building work, as built, complies with applicable building regulation requirements.

  • The proposed statutory time limit for GW3 decisions by the LA is eight weeks, which matches the time limit in place in England.

For further advice on building safety issues in Wales, please contact our Building Safety team.

If you have any queries on this article, please get in touch with Gemma Whittaker.