How BSA Duty Holders Protect Turnover: Managing Live Site Reality

By

Nicholas Dunbar

Reviewed by 

Zoe Mullan

Last Updated Jul 1, 2026

By

Nicholas Dunbar

Reviewed By

Zoe Mullan

The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) fundamentally rewrote the rules for the built environment. Yet, despite the strict new legislation, many main contractors still treat these requirements as a back-office administrative chore – and this may prove a costly miscalculation. Failing to adapt carries significant risk, from severe project delays to potential criminal liability for directors.

Managing BSA duty holders demands digital control on the live site. At the end of the construction phase, the Principal Contractor and Principal Designer must each sign a compliance declaration as part of the completion notice submitted to the building control body – and neither party can sign with confidence if the information trail is weak. Real-time data validation is now essential to protect your profit margins.

To manage these duties effectively and secure your compliance declarations, contractors must focus on four critical areas: 

1. Evidence Competence Across the Supply Chain

The law requires every individual carrying out building work, and every organisation appointing them, to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours (SKEB) relevant to their specific role. For organisations, this extends to demonstrating organisational capability – not just the competence of individual operatives. Proving this creates a significant operational challenge, and fragmented spreadsheets offer little protection. Centralising this data gives you visibility across tiers and protects the client from delegation risks.

To build a reliable compliance trail, site teams should:

• Verify subcontractor organisational capability before awarding the sub-contract
• Capture and store training records and certificates in a centralised site system
• Review competence regularly as the project programme evolves and new trades arrive on site
• Document the rationale behind appointment decisions

2. Manage Design Compliance Through the Principal Designer

Clear frameworks must exist for the Principal Designer to plan, manage, and monitor all design work across preconstruction and construction phases. Variations inevitably happen, so teams must coordinate design changes early to ensure they meet Building Regulations before physical work begins.

Sharing relevant building information early helps prevent costly rework; all designers need fast access as soon as details become available. Maintaining an accurate record of design approvals directly supports the final compliance declaration. In addition, formalise your handover process to maintain continuity in the event the Principal Designer's appointment ends mid-project. Where this occurs, the outgoing Principal Designer must provide the client with a document outlining how their duties have been fulfilled – and the law requires this within 28 days of the appointment ending.  

3. Monitor Site Work to Secure the Compliance Declaration

A rigorous inspection regime gives the main contractor the confidence to declare the works compliant at the end of the programme.

Update the site diary daily to demonstrate that work was monitored against the approved design. Site teams must capture real-time photos and notes for the snag list to prevent non-compliance issues from being concealed. This proactive collaboration with subcontractors builds the mandatory Golden Thread of information as physical work progresses. For Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs), maintaining this digital information trail is a legal requirement under the BSA; for all other projects, the Building Safety Regulator and the Construction Leadership Council regard it as established best practice. 

Prepare all duty holders to sign their respective compliance declarations well before requesting a completion certificate. By linking the construction programme directly to site operations – a capability fully integrated into Procore's Programme tool – you can ensure every site inspection aligns closely with your programme milestones. 

4. Establish a Mandatory Occurrence Reporting System

For HRBs, the law requires principal duty holders to operate a formal Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) system – and for all other projects, the principles behind it represent sound practice. Site teams need a clear, non-adversarial process to report structural or fire safety risks; a blame culture undermines compliance.

Give the workforce a simple, digital method to flag safety concerns without fear of reprisal. Timeframes matter significantly under the new regime: teams must report significant safety occurrences to the Building Safety Regulator within 10 days after becoming aware of them and ensure the Accountable Person receives all relevant safety data before the building is occupied. 

Beyond individual projects, reviewing reporting trends helps identify recurring risks across different sites. Data solutions such as Procore Analytics directly address this need. Features like the 360 Reporting data expansion – which includes a Power BI template built specifically for UK residential projects – can simplify Gateway applications for HRBs.

Take Control of Your Handover

Ultimately, managing BSA duty holders correctly is about protecting both turnover and reputation. When site teams have the right digital tools, compliance becomes an invisible by-product of daily physical work. Taking stock of your site data strategies now puts you in the strongest possible position to secure completion certificates without delay.

Written by

Nicholas Dunbar

Content Manager | Procore

71 articles

Nick Dunbar oversees the creation and management of UK and Ireland educational content at Procore. Previously, he worked as a sustainability writer at the Building Research Establishment and served as a sustainability consultant within the built environment sector. Nick holds degrees in industrial sustainability and environmental sciences and lives in Camden, London.

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Reviewed by

Zoe Mullan

27 articles

Zoe Mullan is an experienced content writer and editor with a background in marketing and communications in the e-learning sector. Zoe holds an MA in English Literature and History from the University of Glasgow and a PGDip in Journalism from the University of Strathclyde and lives in Northern Ireland.

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