Share this briefing with clients, developers, and project teams at appointment stage to set clear expectations about Principal Designer duties under the Building Safety Act 2022.
Role summary
- The Principal Designer plans, manages, and monitors the pre-construction phase
- They coordinate health and safety in design, including fire and structural safety
- On HRB projects they support gateway submissions and golden thread integrity
- They must be appointed in writing before design work begins
Key obligations
- Ensure design decisions do not introduce unmanaged safety risks
- Coordinate information flow between designers and the client
- Maintain competence records and declare limitations where relevant
- Support change control when safety-critical details change
- Prepare and review information required for Gateway 2 and 3
What clients should provide
- Early classification of HRB vs non-HRB status
- Access to competent specialists (fire, structures, facades)
- A single source of truth for approvals and gateway correspondence
- Resource for information management — not ad-hoc file shares
How we manage compliance
- Gateway checklists and submission packs tracked in Threadsovereign
- Golden thread documents versioned with audit trail
- Duty-holder actions assigned with due dates and evidence
- Occupied-phase handover information structured for the Accountable Person
For legal interpretation of duty-holder duties, clients should consult qualified construction and fire safety advisers.
© 2026 Threadsovereign Ltd. Provided for general guidance only — not legal advice.