Regulations & Standards

A practical guide to the regulatory compliance process: building control approval routes, the Building Safety Act gateway framework, higher-risk buildings, fire safety design obligations, and the Principal Designer competency requirements under the new regime. This topic sits at the heart of the Part 3 examination, appearing across all three written papers and in the oral examination. Examiners frequently combine this area with overlapping topics, particularly professional ethics and the impact of procurement route selection on design liability.

Candidates should be able to apply statutory knowledge to project scenarios, demonstrating not just awareness of obligations but practical judgement about how competing duties interact under time and budget pressure.