ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. The design and construction phase requirements of the higher-risk building (HRB) regime came into force on 1 October 2023, under a package of secondary legislation made by the government in August 2023. The secondary legislation contains transitional provisions that determine which construction projects involving HRBs will become subject to the regulatory requirements of the HRB regime, and which will remain subject to pre-existing building control requirements and building regulations. The key feature of the transitional arrangements is that, if parties have notified a building control authority of their plans for HRB works before 1 October 2023 and have given notice that the works have ‘sufficiently progressed’ before 6 April 2024, then works will be exempt from the design and construction phase requirements of the HRB regime. This Practice Note gives guidance on the transitional provisions, and the issues that parties must consider when determining if their projects may be exempt from the HRB regime under these arrangements. Background: the higher-risk building regime The

Construction analysis: The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (Wales) Regulations 2025, (the Welsh Regulations) bring into force the detailed procedural regime governing the design, construction and completion of higher-risk buildings in Wales. The Welsh Regulations give procedural effect in Wales to the higher risk buildings (HRB) regime created under Part 3 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022), as adapted for the Welsh building control system. This article summarises what the Regulations introduce in practical terms, including the mandatory gateway approval process, enhanced information and declaration requirements, controls on design and construction changes, and prohibitions on starting work or occupying an HRB without regulatory approval. It focuses on how the Welsh Regulations operate, on whom obligations are imposed, when they apply, and the legal consequences of non-compliance, with reference where relevant to the equivalent regime in England.

This Checklist contains a guide to highly effective age assurance under Part 3 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023). It is designed to assist Part 3 providers in assessing whether, as part of a children’s access assessment, any existing age assurance methods are ‘highly effective’ and also to assist them in understanding how to implement such methods where they are subsequently required to do so. All Part 3 services must carry out children’s access assessments to determine if their service is ‘likely to be accessed by children’, and a service may only conclude that this is not possible where there are systems or processes in place, such as age-verification tools, that mean children are not normally able to access the system. These systems or processes must be ‘highly effective’ in order for the service to satisfy its legal requirements. For guidance on the meaning of ‘Part 3 services’ and the children’s access assessment requirements, see Practice Notes: The Online Safety Act 2023, The child protection duties

Need for specific additional enquiry where highway access is crucial Direct access to the highway can be fundamental to the viability of a development. In Gooden v Northamptonshire CC, the local authority’s (LA) replies to enquiries indicated—wrongly—that the strip in question was part of the highway and maintainable at public expense. Relying on that reply, the developer acquired the site and obtained planning permission for a residential development. Four months later, the LA wrote to the developer, informing him that part of the land had not been adopted. He sued the LA, claiming that he would not have bought the site had he received an accurate reply to his enquiry. The court dismissed the challenge and held that it had to be shown that the LA knew, or should reasonably have foreseen, the nature of the transaction that the developer had in mind and the purpose for which he might rely upon the information. The question that had been asked was a standard enquiry. It was ordinarily asked in order to assess the likelihood of a purchaser

The organisation responsible for the maintenance of a public highway.

For the purposes of s 100 of the Highways Act 1980, a ‘highway drain’ is defined as including a ditch, gutter, watercourse, soak-away, bridge, culvert, tunnel or pipe. However, to be such a drain it must have been constructed for the purpose of carrying away surface water from a road. A ‘highway drain’ will not be a sewer as it is not used for the drainage of buildings and yards but it may become one if its functions to include the drainage of such premises. The key question to ask when there is a dispute as to the nature of such a pipe is: ‘for what purpose was the pipe laid?’ The same is the case where there is a dispute as to whether a drain is a land drain or a highway drain. The issue will be resolved by considering whether, in the light of all the facts, the function of the drain is to drain a highway or is to drain agricultural land. Where a ditch adjoins a highway the presumption

DATE [date] Parties 1 [name of Authority] of [address] (Authority) 2 [name of Licensee] [of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [number]) whose registered office is at] [address] (Licensee) 1 Definitions In this Licence, the following definitions apply: [Approval • [the Planning Permission and] any [other] consent, licence, permission or approval (apart from this Licence) necessary for the Licensee to carry out the Works;] Building • the Licensee’s building [known as [details] OR to be constructed at [address]] [as shown [edged OR coloured OR hatched] [colour] on the [Plan[s] OR Drawing[s] ] ] [and registered at HM Land Registry with title number [title number]]; [Drawing[s] • the drawing[s] attached to this Licence at Appendix 1;] Engineer • the Authority’s [Head of Engineering Services OR [description]] [or any other officer the Authority notifies from time to time to the Licensee]; Highway • the highway maintainable at the public expense known as [description] [shown [coloured OR hatched] [colour] on the [Plan[s] OR Drawing[s] ] ]; Legislation • all legislation in force in the United Kingdom at any time during the currency of this Licence, including: (a) Acts of Parliament; (b) orders, regulations, consents, licences, notices and bye laws made or granted: (i) under any Act of Parliament; (ii) by a local authority or by a court of competent jurisdiction;

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. This Practice Note explains that the width of a highway is primarily a question of fact, at common law requiring evidence amounting to proof of the minimum width required to take the traffic entitled to use it. It notes that in the absence of proof, the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980) provides minimum and maximum widths. It also describes the different types of boundaries, explaining that there is often physical evidence of the lateral boundaries of a highway, but that it is a question of fact in each case and notes that highway authorities may widen a highway or erect new bridges or footbridges under HiA 1980. Historically, the width of a highway was rarely contentious. The right of highway was (and is) a right to pass and re-pass; a right to travel from A to B. In the book English Local Government: The Story of the King’s Highway, the highway was, as

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. This Practice Note discusses case law on the highway authority’s duty to maintain a highway at the public expense during adverse weather conditions. These reveal that a distinction is drawn between a permanent danger due to want of repair and a transient danger due to the elements and that a highway authority can only be expected to do what is reasonable and cannot be expected to perform daily miracles during the winter. The duty of every highway authority to maintain a highway maintainable at the public expense is more onerous during adverse weather conditions. Ice, snow and flooding all make the highways more dangerous and they all make the job of the maintenance authority much more difficult. The following cases show how the highway authority has to balance its duty to the public with its duty to make sensible use of its limited resources: Flooding Burnside v Emerson In Burnside

Highway authorities are under a statutory duty to prevent, so far as possible, the stopping up or obstruction of highways in their areas. This Practice Note provides guidance on highway obstructions under the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980) in the form of placing building works, scaffolding or skips on the highway. For details about obstructions on highways generally, see Practice Note: Obstruction of highways. For information on the remedies available to local authorities to deal with obstructions on the highway, see Practice Notes: Local authority powers to manage highway obstructions—criminal offences and Local authority powers to manage highway obstructions—civil remedies. Licences for building works, scaffolding and skips Placing scaffolding, hoardings or skips on the highway (including pavements) is an obstruction and may constitute a nuisance. HiA 1980, s 137(1) provides that a person who, without lawful authority or excuse, wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks or a fine, or both. See Practice Note: Obstruction of highways. However,

This Practice Note summarises the statutory right for a member of the public to require the highway authority to repair a highway. It covers the procedure prescribed by section 56 of the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980) through the magistrates’ court for determining that a highway is out of repair. It does not cover proving that a way is a highway and that the highway authority is liable to maintain it, if that is disputed. It also covers drains, structures, public footpaths and bridges. Duty of the highway authority A highway is a way which any member of the public has the right to pass and repass without hindrance at all seasons of the year. HiA 1980, s 41 provides that the highway authority is under a duty to maintain the highway. It is the duty of the highway authority to maintain the road in such a state of repair as to be passable in safety at all seasons of the year. Right to complain If a member of the public considers

Offences involving highway obstructions Various provisions of the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980) identify specific types of obstruction of the highway or nuisance caused by the placing of objects or use of the highway, such as skips placed on the highway and oversailing by cranes or other projections. Offences in relation to each exist which may be avoided if a licence from the highway authority is sought and issued. See Practice Note: Highways obstructions—building works, scaffolding and skips. Additionally, section 22 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 creates an offence where a person in charge of a vehicle causes or permits the vehicle, or a trailer drawn by it, to remain at rest on a road in such a position, condition or circumstances as to involve a danger of injury to other persons using the road. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (CNEA 2005) creates ‘nuisance parking offences’ in relation to leaving, or causing to be left, two or more motor vehicles parked within 500 metres of each other on a road or roads where they