Building safety consultations in early 2023

1 The Government launched several consultations in connection with building safety during the first weeks of February 2023.
2 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] The Government launched several consultations in connection with building safety during the first weeks of February 2023.

[edit] Changes to the building control profession and the building control process

The consultation for changes to the building control profession and the building control process for approved inspectors was published on Tuesday 7 February 2023.

Details of these consultations can be found through the following links:

This consultation is open until 14 March. CIAT is intending to contribute to the CIC response which will also be playing a leading role in drafting the CLC response.

[edit] Service charge transparency requirements

In addition, the Government is consulting on Service charge transparency requirements: ongoing costs of the new building safety regime.

The Act establishes new legal duties for landlords and building owners of high-rise residential buildings of at least 18 metres or seven storeys to keep their building safe. These duties are defined in the Act as building safety measures (examples include assessing building safety risks, preparing and revising a safety case report and giving a contravention notice to a resident). There will be a cost associated with complying with some of these duties, which can be passed to leaseholders through the service charge.

The Government is consulting on proposals to ensure that these costs are made transparent to leaseholders.

Individual responses can be made by completing the online survey, or by emailing your response to the questions here to [email protected]

[edit] Alternative cost recovery for remediation works

The Government is also consulting on Alternative cost recovery for remediation works. In the limited circumstances where a landlord is able to pass on a proportion of remediation costs to any of their leaseholders, provisions in the Act mean that they will have a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure that all alternative avenues of cost recovery have been explored before passing the costs on.

The Government is also consulting on proposals for which buildings and works should be in scope of this duty, and the information that landlords must provide to demonstrate that they have complied with the duty. The Government is also consulting on draft statutory guidance that would explain the reasonable steps landlords should follow.

Individual responses can be made by completing the online survey, or by emailing a response to the questions here to [email protected]

[edit] Professional Conduct Rules for Registered Building Control Approvers (RBCAs)

The HSE is consulting on the Professional Conduct Rules for Registered Building Control Approvers (RBCAs). The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will be operating as part of the HSE from April 2023. Building control professionals will have to register with the BSR to perform building control work in England. The professional conduct rules sets out standards of professional conduct and practice that registered building control approvers are expected to meet. The professional conduct rules are mandatory principles of conduct and standards applying to all who wish to register with the BSR as Registered Building Control Approvers (RBCAs) in the private sector.

The HSE is seeking views on the proposals and the consultation closes on 17 February 2023.

[edit] Draft Code of Conduct for Registered Building Inspectors

The HSE/BSR is also seeking views on a Draft Code of Conduct for Registered Building Inspectors. Building control professionals will have to register with the BSR to perform building control work in England. The code of conduct sets out standards of professional conduct and practice that registered building inspectors (RBIs) are expected to meet. The code of conduct sets out mandatory principles of conduct and standards of behaviour for RBIs, whether they work in the private or public sector.

HSE is seeking views on the proposed code of conduct and the consultation closes on 17 February 2023.

CIAT will be liaising with CIC, once it has consulted with its other members and colleagues at CICAIR with regard to a possible response.

If any members or affiliates have any strong views on these consultations, please submit them in writing, clearly stating which consultation the comments refer to, to technical@ciat.global

CIAT is intending to respond to the consultations outlined below as previously advised:

The BSR is inviting views on its information document that highlights the necessary competency for those managing high risk buildings (HRBs), including a summary of the recent publicly available specification (PAS):

PAS 8673:2022 Built environment – Competence requirements for the management of safety in residential buildings - Specification

The consultation will close on 24 April 2023 and can be found here.

The BSR is inviting views on their information document that highlights the necessary competency for the new principal designer and principal contractor roles, including a summary of the recent publicly available specifications (PAS):

PAS 8671:2022 Built environment – Framework for competence of individual Principal Designers – Specification

PAS 8672 Built environment – Framework for competence of individual Principal Contractors – Specification

The consultation will close on 24 April 2023 and can be found here.

We will be sending out reminders, but members and affiliates wishing to contribute to the above two consultations are requested to submit comments in writing to technical@ciat.global by 10 April 2023.

--CIAT

This article appears on the CIAT news and blog site as "Building safety consultations" dated February 8, 2023.