ICC Client Principles – Feedback form

Overview

The Building Safety Act 2022, and the subsequent addition of Part 2A into the Building Regulations 2010, established clear expectations of clients as dutyholders, recognising their important role in shaping safe buildings. Many clients want to do the right thing, but may not always be sure what diligent, informed and proportionate client behaviour looks like in practice.  

The Industry Competence Committee (ICC), working alongside the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), has developed a set of Principles for Informed Clients to address this gap.  

The principles are designed to: 

• provide a clear, high-level framework to support client decision-making 

• encourage proportionate oversight based on risk, complexity and building lifecycle responsibilities 

• support stronger governance, accountability and culture 

• help clients contribute to safer outcomes through the way they commission, procure and oversee building work. 

Why we are consulting on the principles 

We are now seeking views from all types of clients and other industry stakeholders on whether these principles are clear, useful and workable in practice. 

This consultation will help us understand: 

• whether the intent of the principles is communicated effectively 

• how different client groups might apply them in real-world settings 

• what barriers or challenges clients may face 

• what further guidance, tools or case studies would help make the principles easier to apply. 

We strongly encourage respondents to read the full set of principles before answering the questions that follow. 

How to submit responses

This consultation will last for six weeks from 24 March 2026 until 05 May 2026. Responses must be received by 23:59 on 05 May 2026.

You can respond in three ways:

1. Complete the online survey
2. Download the Word document version of this consultation and email it to bsrsecretariat@hse.gov.uk
3. Download the Word document version of this consultation and send it to:

Consultation on ICC’s Principles for Informed Clients
Health and Safety Executive 
Building 2.1 Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside L20 7HS

If you require a more accessible format of this document, please send details to HSE.Online@hse.gov.uk and your request will be considered.

What happens next

Your feedback will help shape the principles before they are published. It will also inform the ICC and BSR’s future work to strengthen the support available to clients. 

As part of this consultation, we also invite you to indicate whether you would be willing to be contacted by the BSR and ICC for follow-up discussions on our work or to contribute examples or case studies of informed client behaviour in practice.  

Your input is essential to ensure these principles – and any future guidance – are practical, proportionate and aligned with the realities of delivering safe buildings, and we thank you for taking the time to engage with us. 

Confidentiality and GDPR

HSE tries to make its consultation procedure as thorough and open as possible. A summary of responses to this consultation document will be made available on the consultation webpage after the close of the consultation period where it can be viewed.

Information provided in response to this consultation may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes – these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). Statutory Codes of Practice under the FOIA and EIR also deal with confidentiality obligations, among other things.

If you would like us to treat any of the information you provide as confidential, please make this clear in your response. If we receive a request under FOIA or EIR for the information you have provided, we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances.

An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will be disregarded for these purposes. Requests for confidentiality should be made explicit within the body of the response.

HSE will process all personal data in accordance with the GDPR. This means that personal data will not normally be disclosed to third parties and any such disclosures will only be made in accordance with the Regulations. See HSE’s Privacy Policy Statement.

© Building Safety Regulator, 2026

This consultation has been published by the Health and Safety Executive on behalf of the Building Safety Regulator. 

This ICC Client Principles – Feedback form documentation is licensed under the Open Government Licence 3.0, except where otherwise stated.