Building safety regulations: reflections one year on

James Holt

James Holt is the Fire Safety Lead at Loughborough University, a position he has held for over three years. He is responsible for fire policy and strategy, working closely with the Estates and FM team in driving forward fire safety management and compliance for the university. He holds a Master's degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Materials and Radiochemistry, reflecting his keen interest in science. 

He began his career teaching chemistry at degree level and more broadly, science from Key Stage 3 to GCSE, demonstrating a passion for education and knowledge sharing. His career took a significant turn when he transitioned into health and safety at Loughborough University. During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, James showcased his leadership and organisational skills by establishing the university's own inhouse testing and tracing process, helping to ensure a safe environment for staff and students to return to. 

For the past three and a half years, James has dedicated himself to fire safety, completing his CFPA-E diploma through the Fire Protection Authority. His specialisation in preventative fire safety and fire risk assessing has been instrumental in enhancing the university's safety protocols. Given the period in which James came into the fire safety field, significant changes have taken place, including but not limited to the fire safety act 2021, fire safety regulations 2022, and building safety act 2022, which he is going to give us more insight into and his experience in ensuring his organisation’s compliance with managing an occupied high rise residential building. 

Mark Hansford

With a background in both civil engineering and journalism, Mark Hansford has spent more than 25 years as a specialist in disseminating infrastructure knowledge.

After leaving the University of Birmingham with an MEng in 1997, he began his career as an engineer with AtkinsRéalis, where he conducted water supply and distribution analyses, including an asset condition study covering the 100 largest urban water schemes in Ghana.

In 2000, Hansford joined New Civil Engineer magazine, where he progressed through a series of roles. As editor from 2014 to 2020, he led its relaunch as a monthly title publishing daily digital news.

An ICE Fellow, Hansford then served the institution for nearly six years as its director of engineering knowledge. He now works with several organisations seeking to share knowledge, stimulate discussion and enable action to improve the performance of the UK infrastructure sector.

Andrew Threlfall

Andrew is Costain’s Group chief engineer, responsible for technical excellence and product quality across Costain’s wide project portfolio, including design delivery, construction compliance, product quality and future planning.  Focus areas are safe-by-design, sustainable project delivery and risk management.  

Andrew also supports technical skill development, including Costain’s FICE cohort, early careers training schemes and STEM activities. Current upskilling campaigns are aiming to improve right-first-time, building regulations and CDM compliance, low carbon/climate resilience and temporary works delivery.