Welsh Ministers have made the Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 6) (Wales) Regulations 2025, appointing 1 July 2026 for a further tranche of Part 3 and Schedule 5 provisions to take effect in Wales. The instrument is the sixth Welsh commencement regulation under the Act.
The package brings into force, in relation to Wales, section 32(2) (amendment of section 91 of the Building Act 1984), sections 36 to 39 (lapse of building control approval; determination of certain applications by Welsh Ministers; compliance and stop notices; breach of building regulations), section 45 (default powers of the appropriate national authority), section 49(3) (plans certificates: amendment of Schedule 4 to the 1984 Act), and specified paragraphs of Schedule 5. In practice this completes the enforcement and decision‑making toolkit that Welsh authorities will use under the modernised building control regime.
Compliance and stop notices will be available to building control authorities in Wales from 1 July 2026. A compliance notice can require specified steps within a set period to address or avoid a contravention of building regulations; a stop notice can prohibit work immediately or from a specified time where prescribed contraventions exist or where serious harm could arise if the contravention is not remedied. Breach of either notice is a criminal offence.
Section 39 replaces the Building Act 1984 offence provision and strengthens sanctions. Contravening building regulations becomes an either‑way offence punishable by an unlimited fine and/or up to two years’ imprisonment, with a further daily fine for continuing default. In addition, the time limit for local authorities to require alteration or removal of non‑compliant work under section 36 of the 1984 Act is extended from 12 months to 10 years.
Section 36 introduces automatic lapse rules. Where approved building work has not started within three years of approval, the building control approval is treated as if it had not been given. Equivalent three‑year lapse rules apply to initial notices, plans certificates and public body notices, aligning building control with familiar planning time limits and reducing dormant approvals on multi‑building sites.
Where prescribed applications for higher‑risk building work are not determined within statutory timescales and no agreed extension exists, applicants will be able to ask the Welsh Ministers to determine the original application. In Wales, appeals against such ministerial decisions lie to the magistrates’ court. This route is intended to provide a backstop where decisions stall.
Default powers are clarified and updated. If a local authority fails to perform functions under the Building Act 1984, Welsh Ministers may make a transfer order and direct how functions are to be discharged, reflecting the Act’s modernised concept of the “appropriate national authority”.
A suite of consequential amendments in Schedule 5 also comes into operation. These include updating terminology from “local authority” to “building control authority” in several places, Senedd procedure references for Welsh statutory instruments, and adjustments that support the new approvals, certification and enforcement architecture introduced by Part 3 of the 2022 Act.
The commencement sits alongside Welsh reforms already in force. Wales defined “higher‑risk buildings” for design and construction from 1 January 2024; since 6 April 2024, new higher‑risk building work in Wales has been overseen by local authorities rather than private approvers. Registration of Registered Building Control Approvers (RBCAs) and Registered Building Inspectors began in 2024 with oversight designated to the Building Safety Regulator acting for Welsh Ministers.
For practitioners, the timeline is now clear. By 1 July 2026, local authorities should have updated enforcement policies, notice templates and escalation pathways for criminal proceedings; developers should review build programmes to avoid approvals lapsing at three years, particularly on phased or multi‑plot schemes; and RBCAs and inspectors should continue to align operations with Welsh rules on plans certification and professional conduct ahead of the expanded enforcement framework. The regulations were signed on 12 December 2025 by Rebecca Evans MS, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning.