Safety Occurrences: Mandatory Occurrence Reporting

This requires that we, as the ‘Principal Accountable Person’ need to operate a ‘Mandatory occurrence reporting system’ for our High Risk Buildings as defined by the Building Safety Act 2022. “Higher-risk building” means a building in England that:

(a) is at least 18 metres in height or has at least 7 storeys, and

(b) contains at least 2 residential units.

Residents and other users of our high risk buildings may be in a position to spot a problem before we do. They have the right to access and use our reporting system to report these type of safety occurrences.

The purpose behind this reporting is to ensure that the Building Safety Regulator can capture risks that could have a potential impact on fire and structural safety and helps them to assess what such risks may also mean for other buildings.

This helps to improve safety standards, and promote safety-conscious culture change, and better practice in buildings across the UK.

Abri must submit a mandatory occurrence notice for safety occurrences in high risk buildings.

This term must only be used for very specific types of risk and should not be used to report general repairs. A mandatory occurrence is a safety incident that has caused, or if not remedied is likely to cause:

• the death of a significant number of people,
• serious injury to a significant number of people.

Building safety incidents involve at least one of the following:

• structural failure of the building,
• the spread of fire in the building.

Examples of mandatory occurrences

These include:

• the spread of fire (or something that could lead to the spread of fire),
• total or partial collapse of the building,
• defective building work,
• unexpected failure or the degradation of construction materials,
• the discovery of structural defects,
• failure of a critical fire safety measure, such as an automatic opening vent, smoke extraction, fire doors or smoke detectors.

You are able to report a mandatory occurrence report direct either by email or phone, or by using the form at the bottom of this page. In all cases the same information will be required.

Once this information is provided a member of the Building Safety Team will be notified that a Mandatory Occurrence Form has been completed. They will assess the submitted details to see if the occurrence you have reported meets the safety occurrence criteria.

When assessing a Notice, things we will consider include:

• the factors that make up the notice,
• if a Mandatory Occurrence Notice and report must be submitted to BSR,
• if the incident has already been investigated,
• if the report contains additional information relating to a previously raised incident,
• if the information reported constitutes a complaint.

If we agree that a notice or report is required we will then submit the notice to the Building Safety Regulator. If so, we will provide the Mandatory Notice reference number we are given, to confirm that the notice has been submitted. You can then quote this reference to us during any correspondence.

If we feel a notice is not required to be submitted we will also contact you to let them know why. This could be because it has not met the risk criteria, and/or that it needs to be dealt with via a different route.

If you disagree with the decision you can follow our complaints policy which contains specific information relating to Building Safety complaints or contact the BSR by using the information here.

BSR can also be called on 0300 790 6787 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm, except on Wednesdays when they are open from 10am to 5pm).

Once we have submitted a Notice to the BSR we will then have 10 days to submit a report. Once the Notice has been submitted, we will begin to carry out an investigation. We will aim to establish what happened (or had the potential to happen), and why. We may also need to put steps in place to reduce or remedy the issue. We may need to contact you to request further details, to help us to establish how the occurrence was discovered, and whether anyone was injured.

Yes. Information will be processed confidentially and in line with data protection principles. Other residents will be told that there has been a report but will not be told the source. Abri will need to know who submitted the information to request more information if needed, and to be able to report back to the person.

There will be a named point of contact for the reported safety occurrence. People will be able to request an update at any time by making contact and quoting the Mandatory Occurrence Notice reference number.

When an investigation is concluded Abri will notify the person reporting the incident and the rest of the residents of the affected block.

Abri will carry out annual reviews of our reporting system to make sure that it stays effective. If we need to make changes, we will consult in line with the Resident Engagement strategy.