The Building Regulations 2010

PART 1General

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Building Regulations 2010 and shall come into force on 1st October 2010.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Act” means the Building Act 1984;

“amendment notice” means a notice given under section 51A of the Act(1);

“building” means any permanent or temporary building but not any other kind of structure or erection, and a reference to a building includes a reference to part of a building;

“building notice” means a notice given in accordance with regulations 12(2)(a) and 13;

“building work” has the meaning given in regulation 3(1);

“change to a building’s energy status” means any change which results in a building becoming a building to which the energy efficiency requirements of these Regulations apply, where previously it was not;

“controlled service or fitting” means a service or fitting in relation to which Part G, H, J, L or P of Schedule 1 imposes a requirement;

“day” means any period of 24 hours commencing at midnight and excludes any Saturday, Sunday, Bank holiday or public holiday;

“dwelling” includes a dwelling-house and a flat;

“dwelling-house” does not include a flat or a building containing a flat;

“electrical installation” means fixed electrical cables or fixed electrical equipment located on the consumer’s side of the electricity supply meter;

“energy efficiency requirements” means the requirements of regulations 23, 26, 28 and 29 and Part L of Schedule 1;

“extra-low voltage” means voltage not exceeding—

“final certificate” means a certificate given under section 51 of the Act(2);

“fixed building services” means any part of, or any controls associated with—

“flat” means separate and self-contained premises constructed or adapted for use for residential purposes and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally;

“floor area” means the aggregate area of every floor in a building or extension, calculated by reference to the finished internal faces of the walls enclosing the area, or if at any point there is no such wall, by reference to the outermost edge of the floor;

“full plans” means plans deposited with a local authority for the purposes of section 16 of the Act(3) in accordance with regulations 12(2)(b) and 14;

“height” means the height of the building measured from the mean level of the ground adjoining the outside of the external walls of the building to the level of half the vertical height of the roof of the building, or to the top of the walls or of the parapet, if any, whichever is the higher;

“independent access” means, in relation to a part of a building (including any extension to that building), a route of access to that part which does not require the user to pass through any other part of the building;

“initial notice” means a notice given under section 47 of the Act(4);

“institution” means an institution (whether described as a hospital, home, school or other similar establishment) which is used as living accommodation for, or for the treatment, care or maintenance of persons—

where such persons sleep on the premises;

“low voltage” means voltage not exceeding—

“material alteration” has the meaning given in regulation 3(2);

“material change of use” has the meaning given in regulation 5;

“microgeneration” means the use for the generation of electricity or the production of heat or cooling of any plant (which for this purpose includes any equipment, apparatus or appliance) which, in generating electricity or (as the case may be) producing heat or cooling, relies wholly or mainly on a source of energy or a technology mentioned in section 26(2) of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006(5);

“public body’s final certificate” means a certificate given under paragraph 3 of Schedule 4 to the Act;

“public body’s notice” means a notice given under section 54 of the Act;

“renovation” in relation to a thermal element means the provision of a new layer in the thermal element or the replacement of an existing layer, but excludes decorative finishes, and “renovate” shall be construed accordingly;

“room for residential purposes” means a room, or a suite of rooms, which is not a dwelling-house or a flat and which is used by one or more persons to live and sleep and includes a room in a hostel, an hotel, a boarding house, a hall of residence or a residential home, but does not include a room in a hospital, or other similar establishment, used for patient accommodation;

“shop” includes premises—

“softened wholesome water” means water which would be regarded as wholesome for the purposes of regulations made under section 67 of the Water Industry Act 1991(6) (standards of wholesomeness) as they apply for the purposes of Part G of Schedule 1 in accordance with paragraph (5) but for the presence of sodium in excess of the level specified in those regulations if it is caused by a water softener or water softening process which reduces the concentrations of calcium and magnesium.

(2) In these Regulations “public building” means a building consisting of or containing—

(a)a theatre, public library, hall or other place of public resort;

(b)a school or other educational establishment not exempted from the operation of building regulations by virtue of section 4(1)(a) of the Act(7); or

(c)a place of public worship;

but a building is not to be treated as a place of public resort because it is, or it contains, a shop, storehouse or warehouse, or is a dwelling to which members of the public are occasionally admitted.

(3) In these Regulations “thermal element” means a wall, floor or roof (but does not include windows, doors, roof windows or roof-lights) which separates a thermally conditioned part of the building (“the conditioned space”) from—

(a)the external environment (including the ground); or

(b)in the case of floors and walls, another part of the building which is—

(i)unconditioned;

(ii)an extension falling within class 7 of Schedule 2; or

(iii)where this paragraph applies, conditioned to a different temperature,

and includes all parts of the element between the surface bounding the conditioned space and the external environment or other part of the building as the case may be.

(4) Paragraph (3)(b)(iii) only applies to a building which is not a dwelling, where the other part of the building is used for a purpose which is not similar or identical to the purpose for which the conditioned space is used.

(5) Section 67 of the Water Industry Act 1991 and such regulations as have been made under that section apply for the purposes of Part G of Schedule 1 as they apply for the purposes of Chapter 3 of Part 3 of that Act.