Pursuant to section 30 of the Building Act 2004 (“Act”), I give notice of a decision to confirm Amendment 13 to Acceptable Solution for the New Zealand Building Code clause B1 Structure (“B1/AS1”), made on 1 June 2016 without prior consultation, in accordance with section 29(5) of the Act.

Amendment 13 to B1/AS1 introduces additional safety requirements for structural glass barriers, and was introduced for the following reasons:

• the potential for injury when structural glass barriers break unexpectedly; and
• an increasing use of structural glass barriers.

A public consultation on Amendment 13, that ran from 20 July 2016 to 31 August 2016, did not highlight any objections to having additional safety requirements. Feedback showed that some clarification of the new requirements is needed, which will be incorporated into Amendment 15 of B1/AS1. Amendment 15 will be published shortly and will come into effect on 1 January 2017.

B1/AS1 is available for download free of charge from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s website

www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/b-stability/b1-structure

Dated at Wellington this 1st day of December 2016.

ANNA BUTLER, General Manager, Building System Performance, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.