The Welsh Government has set 1 July 2026 for a further tranche of Building Safety Act 2022 provisions to commence in Wales. The Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 6) (Wales) Regulations 2025 switch on additional Part 3 powers and a series of Schedule 5 amendments that complete Wales’s move from the old “deposit of plans” model to the modernised building control approval system.
New enforcement tools become available to building control authorities. Section 38 introduces compliance notices and stop notices, creating criminal offences for failure to comply. Breach can attract up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine, with further daily fines following summary conviction for continued default. These powers apply alongside existing duties to ensure building regulations are met.
Section 39 recasts breach of building regulations as an either‑way criminal offence with the same maximum penalties, and extends the window for requiring non‑compliant work to be remedied: the time limit for notices under section 36 of the Building Act 1984 moves from 12 months to 10 years. This materially lengthens the period during which authorities can act on defects.
Section 36 on lapse now applies in full. If work has not started within three years of approval being granted, building control approval lapses; equivalent rules apply to public bodies’ notices and plans certificates. Developers and public bodies will need to monitor commencement dates to avoid re‑application.
Section 37 enables applicants to seek a determination from the Welsh Ministers where a building control authority has not decided a prescribed application relating to higher‑risk building work within the relevant period. This operates against Wales’s existing legal definition of a higher‑risk building for the design and construction phase.
Section 45 activates default powers so the Welsh Ministers can transfer building control functions from a local authority that persistently falls short in a way that risks safety. The provision frames a back‑stop where intervention is judged necessary to protect people in or about buildings.
Section 32(2) takes effect for Wales by amending section 91 of the Building Act 1984 to reflect circumstances where functions may sit with bodies other than the local authority and to align with regulation‑making powers around higher‑risk work in Wales (including section 91ZD). The change supports the updated architecture of building control.
There is also a targeted commencement within section 49: paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 to the 1984 Act is updated to reinforce the framework for public body plans certificates (section 49(3) of the 2022 Act). In practice, this underpins how plans certificates are issued and the information they must contain.
Multiple Schedule 5 amendments switch on to complete the terminology and process changes across the 1984 Act for Wales. These include the repeal of sections 16 and 17 (ending the legacy deposit‑of‑plans route), the omission of section 31, new headings and references to “building control approval”, and consequential updates to enforcement and initial notice provisions. Key commenced paragraphs are 20, 21(3)–(5), 22(3)–(6), 28, 29, 31, 32 and 40(2), with further consequential changes at 41(3), 42(2), 43, 45, 46(3), 55(3), 79 and 90.
Who is affected. Local authority building control teams gain stop‑notice and compliance‑notice powers and a much longer enforcement horizon, so case management, legal and site inspection procedures will need updating. Registered Building Control Approvers (private sector) should align client advice, especially on approval lapse and enforcement risk; registration and oversight remain within the Wales regime, with the Building Safety Regulator designated to operate the register on behalf of Welsh Ministers. Developers and public bodies should diary commencement deadlines and factor the non‑determination route to the Welsh Ministers into programme planning for higher‑risk projects.
Context. Earlier Welsh commencement regulations from 2024 deliberately held back several Schedule 5 items to allow transitional running; those withheld paragraphs are now among the provisions commencing on 1 July 2026. In parallel, the Welsh Government has consulted on a Wales‑specific higher‑risk building control regime and wider building regulations changes, signalling further secondary legislation and guidance to come.