This week we will be talking about the role of the Approved Inspector under the new Building Safety Act. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.
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This week we will be talking about the role of the Approved Inspector under the new Building Safety Act. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.
Resources from today's episode:
Websites:
Thank you for listening! Please follow me on Instagram @part3withme for weekly content and updates.
Join me next week for more Part3 With Me time.
If you liked this episode please give it a rating to help reach more fellow Part3er's!
Episode 101:
Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast.
The show that helps part 3 students jump-start into their careers as qualified architects and also provides refresher episodes for practicing architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week is we will be talking about the role of the Approved Inspector under the new Building Safety Act. Today’s episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.
So following a number of episodes I have currently shared regarding the changes to the Building Safety Act, today’s episode will be looking at what the new legislation means for the Approved Inspector role.
Through the Building Safety Act 2022, and associated secondary legislation, the proposed changes aim to improve the standards in building control by establishing a regulated building control profession overseen by the Building Safety Regulator that will require competence requirements for individual building control professionals.
So the Building Safety Act changes who can advise on and carry out building control work. The aim of these changes are to improve competence levels, transparency and accountability in the building control profession ensuring only individuals who have demonstrated the relevant competence are advising decision-makers before important building control decisions are taken.
The key changes under the act with regards to approved inspectors include:
So what can current Approved Inspectors do to meet the new requirements and have enough time to register as building control approvers:
Essentially, the role of the Approved Inspector will come to an end and if Approved Inspectors wish to continue with building control matters they will have to register as building control approvers and they must do so within six months before the new regime formally begins.
The Building Safety Regulator governed by the HSE has determined two independent provider schemes for building control professionals, the Building Safety Competence Foundation and the Chartered Association of Building Engineers. These two schemes can be used by building control professionals to become registered building inspectors.
To enable a smooth transition to the new regime, the government is proposing a number of transitional proposals covering instances:
So looking at the second transitional proposal of an Approved Inspector not overseeing high-risk buildings and therefore not becoming a registered building control approver, what is the process in such instances:
Under such circumstances, the new regime allows for a six-month transitionary period from the start of the registered building control approver regime for an approved inspector to conclude their remaining non-higher-risk building work cases and they will not be able to take on any new work during this time.
So during the 6-month period, an approved inspector will retain their existing powers to issue plans certificates and final certificates and to cancel any existing initial notices where work will need to transfer to a registered building control approver or revert them to the local authority. Then at the end of the 6-month period, even if approved inspectors don’t work on higher-risk buildings they still will not be able to exercise their powers and their deeming provision will cease to be in force, unless they register as a building control approver.
And even when the Approved Inspector does seek to work on higher-risk buildings, once the higher-risk building work regime comes into force, an approved inspector will not be able to submit an initial notice which relates to higher-risk building work unless they register by day one of the new regime as a building control approver.
Now under the third transitional proposal, In-flight higher-risk building work:
The transitional arrangements in such circumstances, initially is that for higher-risk building work subject to an initial notice to benefit from the transitional provisions, the initial notice must have been accepted or be deemed to be accepted by the local authority by the date when the new regime for higher-risk building work comes into force. This means that the five days, under current regulations, in which the local authority has to accept or reject an initial notice before the notice is deemed to be accepted, must have taken place before the regime for higher-risk building work coming into force. This is to make sure that building work that a local authority wishes to reject cannot continue to be built to previous building regulations.
Then at the end of the transitional period where higher-risk building work subject to an initial notice is uncommenced, the initial notice will cease to be in force. As a result, any uncommenced higher-risk building work subject to an initial notice will not be able to begin construction without submitting a building control approval application to the Building Safety Regulator under the new higher-risk building control regime. Without this intervention, uncommenced higher-risk building work would be overseen by an approved inspector, with the Building Safety Regulator taking over the role the local authority has under the current system, but this is not the intended policy outcome. The government has made clear that new higher-risk building work, when the new regime for higher-risk building work comes into force, must be solely overseen by the Building Safety Regulator.
The government also proposes to make provision in building regulations that plans certificates also cease to be in force where the initial notice to which they relate ceases to be in force. This approach will make sure that enforcement action can be taken against work completed where the work is not covered by a final certificate. This is to enable the Building Safety Regulator to properly oversee higher-risk building work subject to an initial notice that fails to commence within the transitional period and must meet the requirements of the new building control regime for higher-risk buildings.
Where an initial notice is cancelled, for any reason, during or at the end of the transitional provisions for higher-risk building work, this work will transfer to the Building Safety Regulator as building control authority for higher-risk building work.
In the case where building work commenced by the end of the transitional period, and the approved inspector has successfully registered as a building control approver and therefore meets the other criteria for the deeming provisions, they will be able to continue oversight of the higher-risk building work to completion. This will mean that the initial notices issued by the approved inspector for the higher-risk building work will be treated as initial notices for the registered building control approver. Should an initial notice be subsequently cancelled, the incomplete higher-risk building work will revert to the Building Safety Regulator.
So what I discussed up to this point was the transitional arrangements for Approved Inspectors getting to grips with the new regime.
Now lets look at the Registration process with the Building Safety Regulator:
So, as briefly covered earlier, one of the roles of the Building Safety Regulator will be to oversee building control registration for individual building inspectors and private sector building control approvers by setting the criteria and competence requirements they will need for the registration and the codes to which they will need to adhere to.
Local Authorities as a whole will not be required to register with the Building Safety Regulator, but the individual employees will be able to register with the Building Safety Regulator as building inspectors if they meet the registration requirements. But Local authorities will be subject to the new rigorous requirements in having to comply with the Building Safety Regulator’s Operational Standards Rules for building control bodies, and seek the advice of a registered building inspector before carrying out certain building control activities.
Key item to note, registered building control approvers can work across England and may be overseeing building work in the areas of multiple local authorities.
In terms of how long the certification is valid for, currently this is set at 4 years and then building control approvers will need to re-register of the 4 years if they wish to continue with their duties. As part of the Building Safety Regulators approved independent competence assessment schemes, candidates will be evaluated against the Building Inspector Competence Framework (BICoF) classes 1 – 4. The different classes are for different requirements, so:
A Class 1 Building Inspector is for (Associate/Assistant): Cannot be unsupervised. Minimal experience/entry level position.
A Class 2 Building Inspector (Standard): Can undertake tasks like evaluating plans, drawings and documents, conducting inspections, advising building control bodies, and advising the issuance of completion certificates.
Then a Class 3 Building Inspector (Complex/High Rise Buildings): Has additional knowledge to deal with complex and high-rise buildings. Must be able to liaise with clients/contractors/building control bodies and must be able to implement and develop a property inspection schedule.
And a Class 4 Building Inspector (Manager): Is able to manage a building control team.
In order to progress through the classes, and to maintain class position, Inspectors must complete mandatory CPD.
So under the new system, the Building Safety Regulator will establish and maintain two registers, the first will be for building inspectors for both the public and private sector who must meet the same minimum standards to be placed on the Building Safety Regulators register and the second will be a register for private sector building control bodies, which are the current Approved Inspectors, who will need to register as building control approvers and meet registration requirements and other criteria as previously mentioned.
So reverting back to the code, building control approvers will need to adhere to, these codes will essentially set out the expected behaviours and standards that registered building control approvers must meet, the HSE published the proposed professional conduct rules in January. If a registered building control approver doesn’t meet these standards, and therefore contravenes the professional conduct rules, the Building Safety Regulator, as set out in the Building Safety Act 2022 will be able to investigate the contravention and issue sanctions, which include:
The Building Safety Regulator can also order a short suspension of the building control approver’s registration of up to three months while investigating the breach if the contravention of the professional conduct rules is considered very serious.
Some common reasons for claims against Building Control Approvers will probably include:
In which case, Approvers should ensure that they have robust terms and conditions upon instruction. For the time being, many Approved Inspectors are likely to be continuing to use the ACAI standard contract and this is a requirement of many Approved Inspector professional indemnity insurance policies. The CICAIR terms contain many key protections to reflect the risks of the role which will also be important in Approver appointments.
Now lets look at what the key duties of the different bodies are, including a Building Control Approver, the Local Authority and Building Safety Regulator:
Starting with a Building Control Approver, their duties and responsibilities will consist of:
Whereas, Local Authorities duties and responsibilities will consist of:
And then the Building Safety Regulators duties and responsibilities for higher-rik building work will consist of:
And for non higher-risk building work under a Regulator’s Notice, their duties consist of:
A Key item to highlight is that duty holders or people carrying work on higher-risk buildings will no longer be able to choose their building control body, under the new regime, the Building Safety Regulator will be the only building control authority for higher-risk buildings. It will therefore not be allowed from the start of the higher-risk building regime for an approved inspector or registered building control approver to submit an initial notice (the initial approval mechanism required in law when employing a registered building control approver to carry out the building control) or amendment notice (the mechanism to vary an initial notice) or for a developer to deposit full plans with a local authority.
So under the new regime, initial notices or amendment notices, where an Approved Inspector notifies the local authority of intended building work, will no longer be lawful to cover higher-risk building work, any such notice will be void and cannot be relied upon.
So the proposed intent with Initial Notices will include:
Another document which will be affected by the new regime is the Plans Certificate:
So, Plans certificates currently allow approved inspectors (and in future, registered building control approvers) to certify that detailed plans for building work are in accordance with all applicable building regulations’ requirements. Where a plans certificate is submitted, and not rejected by the local authority, they also provide protection for the developer from enforcement after the work is completed, provided the work is carried out in accordance with the plans certificate. So Approved inspectors are responsible for checking that building work described in the plans will comply with all applicable building regulations’ requirements and the local authority can either accept or reject the plans certificate but only on the grounds currently provided in the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010.
Now under, The Building Safety Act 2022, it introduces powers for government to make changes to the building regulations to:
Plans certificates are currently mandatory only when an approved inspector is asked to provide one by their client, but under the Act it is intended that plan certificates will become mandatory for any building work under the building regulations on non higher risk buildings that fall under the Regulatory Reform (fire safety) Order 2005. This essentially means that in cases of building work falling under the Order, the registered building control approver will have to consider some or all of the plans together and certify to the local authority that the building work will comply with all applicable building regulations’ requirements if built in accordance with those plans. If a register building control approver, however, is not satisfied with the information received to enable them to issue a plans certificate, they will be able to issue a certificate with a statement confirming that they inspected the sufficient plans enabling them to issue the plan certificate and that the client has agreed to provide all further plans by a specific time for the approver to inspect before the work starts. Where conditions have not been met, the registered building control approver would be expected to cancel the initial notice, and the work to revert to local authority building control for regularisation or enforcement where necessary. Local authorities will also be able to cancel the initial notice.
So reverting back to initial notices:
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduces a new process for the responsibility of building projects to be transferred from one registered building control approver to another, instead of automatically reverting to the local authority. This means that a new registered building control approver will be able to take on unfinished work not subject to a final certificate, and ensure that it complies with all applicable building regulations’ requirements. This will provide greater flexibility and capacity for the building control system. It will also mean that every incoming registered building control approver has taken all reasonable steps to determine whether any unfinished work contravenes any provision of the building regulations and to confirm this with the relevant local authority to which the certificate and report must be submitted.
To sum up what I discussed today: