5 Steps to conduct a Risk Assessment for Building Safety Case Reports

Building safety cases and safety case reports form the foundations of a dependable and efficient building safety approach and are legal requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act). As laid out by the Act, safety cases and reports are mandatory for all higher-risk buildings (buildings with at least two residential units which are at least 18 metres in height or have at least 7 storeys) and safety case reports must be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator, when instructed to do so, from April 2024. Discover the key takeaways from the Act in our dedicated blog, ‘Building Safety Act Summary: How should you be preparing?’.

Sections 83-86 of the Act specifies= that accountable persons must assess all building safety risks to demonstrate they can manage an occupied building. This is to be included in the building’s safety case which is then presented to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). To read the full legislation, click here.  

Risk assessments are often overlooked when it comes to safety case reports, yet they are important for ensuring the safety of your buildings and the well-being of your tenants. We understand there’s a lot to think about when developing your safety cases and reports, so we have created a short step- by- step guide to ensure your risk assessment process is simple and straightforward. 

To find out more about safety cases, duties of accountable persons, and what’s next for your building safety approach, watch our on-demand webinar, ‘Building Safety: Safety Cases and New Legislation.’ 

5 steps to carrying out a risk assessment 

The government and Health and Safety Executive have provided guidance detailing how to create a robust risk assessment and made it clear that assessing the risks within your higher-risk buildings must be a top priority. Here are the key takeaways from this guidance so you can find out how to complete a risk assessment in just 5 simple steps.  

Before you record your assessment, ensure your risk assessment team is made up of people who have knowledge and experience with fire management systems, fire safety, and structural safety. This will ensure your risk assessment’s scope is wide enough to cover all potential risks to the necessary degree. Your building’s accountable person is not expected to conduct the risk assessment but is expected to know and understand your safety case report before its submission to the BSR.  

When carrying out your risk assessment, there are different factors that you must consider as all buildings are different and should be looked at individually. The purpose of your assessment is to cover all the potential risks for your building, so it’s important to take all factors into consideration. The main variable factors are:  

• Different areas mean different hazards. Regarding the building design and structural integrity, consider each area individually, for example, how will the risks in an individual flat differ to the risks in a communal area. 
• How old your building is? Whether your building is new or old, having a method of assessing your building’s risks over time is important. As the age of the building changes, so do the hazards. 
• Can your hazard grow? If there is a chance of a hazard developing, think about how you can adapt your approach down the line and whether this could change who is affected by the risk.   
• Consider all possible scenarios. This includes considering worst-case scenarios, fire-risk scenarios, and structural-risk scenarios and can be done by conducting scenario planning. If any of these happen, you need to have a clear plan in place to manage new risks and understand if and how this can affect your tenants.  

For each of these situations, consider what measures you can take to reduce the severity of the risks as well as the chance of risks happening. Ask yourself: are any mitigations you can put in place to entirely eradicate the chance of the risk happening? 

Once you are happy that you have addressed the variables mentioned above, consider whether the measures you have chosen to manage the risks are reasonable for your building. How effective will your measures be in controlling building safety risks? Consider if there are any alternative measures you could put in place and if these would be reasonably practicable - remember to include this in your risk assessment.  

Whilst you are not required to use a specific risk assessment method or template, being consistent between each risk assessment you undertake will help you evaluate risks in a standardised way, therefore sticking to the method you already use could be beneficial. Methodologies like HAZID (hazard identification) are straightforward making them a good option to consider, but since each building is different and requires different risk assessment methods, we recommend using whatever works best for you. The main things to look out for in a sufficient risk assessment method are:  

• Information set out clearly. 
• A detailed analysis of your risks, including inherent and residual risks.  
• The immediate causes and consequences of risks. 
• Prevention and mitigation measures. 

Use everything you have learnt from the previous steps to assess the risks within your building. Record and provide timescales for any actions that you have completed or will be completing in the future to manage the risks. From the risks identified and analysed, you will be able to implement targeted control measures and mitigation strategies to ensure the safety of your building.  

When you have completed your risk assessment, a summary of it should be used in your safety case report as part of your claim, argument, and evidence of being competent to effectively manage a higher-risk building in occupation. This summary should include:  

• A description of the types of risk assessment techniques used throughout the building. 
• An overview of who did the assessment and their competence to do so. 
• The significant findings of the assessments. 
• A summary of any outstanding actions or recommendations and the plan to progress them. 

Your safety case report should be revised when the current risk assessment is no longer valid, for example, any time there are changes made to your risk assessment or whenever a new assessment is made. 

To discover the other key components of a comprehensive safety case report, head over to our dedicated blog, ‘Building Safety Case Report: What you should include’, here.

Lessons learnt from risk assessments  

From working with organisations across the sector, we often see poor practices where risk assessments are overlooked and not completed or are not robust enough to fulfil their purpose within the safety case report. We also see how organisations often struggle when attempting to complete their risk assessments alone. If your approach would benefit from an expert talking you through the relevant questions and helping you understand the ins and outs of your risk assessment, we would love to hear from you. 

Best practices show that to create the most robust, comprehensive risk assessment, you should undertake a risk assessment workshop with key members of your organisation that know and understand the building, the tenants, and use a recognised methodology to document it.  

Ensure you are prioritising your risk assessments to gain assurance that your safety case report is an effective tool to show that your organisation is taking all reasonable steps to manage building safety risks. 

If you need any help with developing your risk assessments, we can provide a facilitated workshop to help guide you through the questions you need to ask about the building to ensure your risk assessment is clear, robust, and representative of all your building’s risks.