The Draft Building Safety Bill was published in July, and sets out the legislation to establish a new Building Safety Regulator for all buildings and a new, stricter regime for higher risk buildings. The announcement of the Draft Bill also underlines the need for further change in industry culture and competence. One statutory function of the new regulator is to “facilitate improvement in the competence of industry and of building inspectors”, and there will be a new industry competence committee. Section 6 of the Draft Bill requires the regulator to give appropriate “assistance and encouragement” to those in the industry or members of a profession to improve their competence.
The Draft Bill will establish new statutory roles for design, construction and operation of higher risk buildings, which may be filled by individuals or organisations. The regulator may prescribe competence requirements for the designer or the contractor and impose duties on those appointing them to ensure that they really are competent. Clients will be required to signify that they have assessed and are content with the competence of the principal designer and contractor.
To support these new requirements the British Standards Institution (BSI) is developing new standards on industry competence. An overarching framework for competence is being developed to define the overall requirements for competence frameworks in the built environment sector. It is particularly aimed at the competence of those involved with higher risk buildings as defined within the legislation – which is likely to expand over time. It specifies core characteristics to be included in profession specific competence schemes and so it is very relevant to CIBSE, the Engineering Council or any other relevant body looking to develop or achieve recognition for a relevant competence framework.
The consultation closed on 20 October 2020.
Supporting papers
To download the consultation document, please follow the link below.
- Draft BSI Flex 8670: v1.0 2020-09 Built environment – Overarching framework for competence of individuals – Specification
- BSI Flex comments form
CIBSE response
CIBSE supports the creation of the overarching framework and in particular the emphasis on Continuing Professional Development and the more formal requirements, as well as the introduction of the concept of revalidation of competence for those working on the highest risk buildings.
CIBSE submitted a large number of comments because such an important standard needs real attention to detail to enable a change in culture in the construction sector.
To read comments submitted by CIBSE follow the link below.