Written evidence submitted by Darren Ghaffoori [BSB 072]

 

My name is Darren Ghaffoori and I am the Design Risk Manager for Bernard Sims Associates. I have over 15 years construction experience within corporate, retail, educational and engineering environments.

 

Bernard Sims Associates is one of the country’s longest-established independent health and safety consultancies operating UK wide.

 

At BSA we’re committed to keeping people safe in all kinds of workplaces. Our services go beyond simply avoiding accidents and the cost and lost time they incur. We help shape peoples’ attitudes and understanding and help with creating a safety culture that reduces costs and downtime, keeps people safe and increases their well-being and productivity.

The services that we provide are as follows:

 

Questions

  1. Is the penalty of two years imprisonment for providing false or misleading evidence to the Building Safety Regulator enough of a deterrent.?
  2. Building regulations are currently not within Principal Designers’ current skill set.
    1. If it isn’t the intention that the Principal Designer under the building safety regulations is to be the same Principal Designer as under the CDM Regulations, then a different name should be considered to avoid confusion.
    2. It should be noted that Principal Designers under the CDM Regulations have no professional indemnity cover for building regulation related duties, nor does any “named individual”.
  3. Is it the intention that following the implementation of the Building Safety Bill the scope / definition of higher risk buildings may be widened or changed.
  4. Will the Building Safety Manager need to be appointed prior to the completion of a new high risk building (as described in the Draft Bill) in order to have influence on the management of the building post completion or will this appointment be made after.

 

September 2020