What exemptions does Poland’s new regulation create for protective structures in public buildings, and how could they affect publicly funded construction?
A size and design threshold now applies
Poland’s Ministry of the Interior and Administration has replaced the previous Council of Ministers rules with a regulation setting out when public buildings do not have to provide a shelter or place of refuge. The principal automatic exemption covers buildings without an underground floor whose above-ground area has no more than 5,000 sq m of internal space. It also covers buildings intended for no more than 50 people, except public administration headquarters, and buildings entered in the national register or a provincial register of historic monuments. Smaller extensions and upward additions are included where the added area is no more than 2,500 sq m and the expansion does not exceed 100 per cent.
Local authorities retain a case-by-case route
The regulation also permits an authority responsible for civil protection, such as a city mayor, to grant an exemption after considering the circumstances of a particular project. Grounds can include the absence of technical options for building a protective structure, limited local demand for shelter places, disproportionately high investment costs, or another protective structure within 500 m. The decision may also take account of the risk of an industrial accident or natural disaster. The same route can apply to buildings for no more than 100 people or with an area of up to 2,500 sq m, but not to hospitals or buildings connected with science, higher education, schooling or upbringing.
The rule changes the scope that buyers and bidders must plan
For public construction procurement, the regulation establishes a preliminary compliance question before a shelter is designed, priced and included in the project brief. A contracting authority or investor must first establish whether the building falls within an automatic exemption, or whether a local civil-protection authority must decide the matter. That distinction affects the technical scope presented to designers and contractors, as well as the approvals and evidence needed during the investment process. Dariusz Krzysztofik of Lublin’s municipal security and crisis-management department said the clearer rules should help investors prepare projects and enable local authorities to conduct proceedings and decisions more consistently. The regulation does not, however, remove local planning responsibilities.
Cities can exempt projects while expanding protection elsewhere
The exemptions sit alongside wider municipal planning for collective protection. Dariusz Sadowski of Szczecin’s city office said the mayor, as the territorial civil-protection authority, must plan the necessary number and capacity of collective-protection facilities, taking account of the population within the city’s boundaries. Szczecin says it will continue increasing protective structures in municipal public buildings and encourage external investors to locate them in privately owned buildings. This means an exempt project is not automatically treated as irrelevant to local resilience: the authority can weigh its characteristics against nearby capacity and local risk. For suppliers, the transferable point is that a regulatory exception may remove a requirement from one project while leaving broader public protection objectives in place.
IN NUMBERS
The regulation gives investors and public authorities clearer routes for determining when a protective structure is required, automatically excluded or subject to a local decision. Its practical effect will depend on how each project is classified and how authorities balance technical, financial and local protection considerations.
Reported from regiony.rp.pl, 2026-09-10. The Tender Wire is published by Otnox.
