Review of Approved Document A: Structure - call for evidence

Page 1 of 7

Closes 21 Apr 2025

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Introduction

Building Regulations set technical requirements covering a wide range of health, safety, access, security and sustainability issues. The Regulations are supported by statutory guidance in “Approved Documents” which provide practical guidance on ways to comply with the requirements in the Regulations.

Approved Document A (ADA) provides practical guidance on ways to comply with the Buildings Regulations Requirements which relate to the structural safety of buildings. These are:

Requirement Limits on application

A1: Loading

  1. The building shall be constructed so that the combined dead, imposed and wind loads are sustained and transmitted by it to the ground:

    1. safely; and 

    2. without causing such deflection or deformation of any part of the building, or such movement of the ground, as will impair the stability of any part of another building.

  2. In assessing whether a building complies with sub-paragraph (1) regard shall be had to the imposed and wind loads to which it is likely to be subjected in the ordinary course of its use for the purpose for which it is intended.

  

A2: Ground movement

The building shall be constructed so that ground movement caused by:

  1. swelling, shrinkage or freezing of the subsoil; or

  2. land-slip or subsidence (other than subsidence arising from shrinkage), in so far as the risk can be reasonably foreseen, will not impair the stability of any part of the building.

  

A3: Disproportionate collapse

The building shall be constructed so that in the event of an accident the building will not suffer collapse to an extent disproportionate to the cause.

  

ADA states “In the Secretary of State’s view the requirements of A1 and A2 will be met by following the recommendations given in the documents listed in Section 1 or by adopting the guidance in Sections 2-4.”

ADA section 1 was last revised in May 2013 to remove the reference to discontinued British Standards and to include the Eurocodes. Additionally, some elements of sections 2-4 of ADA based on technical content from the Eurocodes were revised.

Most structural design undertaken in England demonstrates compliance with the building regulations requirements A1 and A2 by following the standards referenced within section 1 of ADA, the vast majority of which are Eurocodes.

Since May 2013, the second generation of Eurocodes have been in development. These standards seek to build on the first generation of the Eurocode standards by increasing ease of use, embracing state of the art approaches and technologies and by increasing standardisation across Europe.

On 30th March 2028, the first generation of the Structural Eurocodes are due to be withdrawn.

We are proposing revising ADA to coincide with the withdrawal of the first generation Eurocode Standards.  At this point we propose that throughout ADA any reference to Eurocodes is updated to reflect the second generation version of the document.

ADA has not been substantially reviewed recently and we are planning on using this opportunity to undertake a wider review of the document, beyond the changes which are required due to the Eurocode revision.