Latest HRB Safety Case Observations

RiskFlag had a great 3 days at Housing 2025. Thank you to everybody who visited our stand and attended our HRB Safety Case workshop. After talking with many clients and reviewing more safety case reports, here are our latest observations of how to improve the Safety Cases for your HRBs.

1. A HRB Safety Case is not just about compliance to regulations, building regulations, for example. The Safety Case must demonstrate that you have done everything that you reasonably can to lower the risk, and the risk that you are left with is worth it for the benefit that you derive from the activity.

2. We have seen many Safety Cases that have been produced without a prior understanding of the risks associated with the HRB. You must have a way of identifying risks and things to reduce risk, often called 'barriers'. Remember that the Safety Case Report must include a Risk Assessment and Management of Risks summary.

3. The difference between a Safety Case and a Safety Case Report is still not well understood. As defined by the BSR: 'the safety case report is a document that summarises the building’s safety case'. The Safety Case Report is a snapshot in time, it is only valid for the time and date that it was issued. Each HRB must have a live Safety Case.

4. Organisations often tend to start their Safety Case by collecting evidence first. This is wrong! Once you understand your risk, construct your safety claims and arguments. This will then inform what evidence you need for your HRB Safety Case. This will save you money and time, as you will not need to commission unnecessary evidence collection, additional surveys, for example.

5. It's ok not to have a perfect safety case! But, you must articulate in the Safety Case your action plan as to how you will gather the required evidence. Whilst you wait for the evidence, you must explain in the Safety Case why you believe that the HRB is still safe to occupy i.e. what are your short-term mitigations.

Let's all learn from each other! If you're developing HRB Safety Cases, then please get in contact! info@riskflag.com