Scottish Building Regulations: Fire Safety review and Compliance: Call for Evidence

Building Standards verifiers currently carry out ‘reasonable inquiry’ into whether work has been carried out in accordance with the building regulations, and do not certify work as compliant, as this is the role of the completion certificate submitted by the Relevant Person.

Verifiers report that in many instances they are used to check whether work is compliant by contractors, and often have to reinspect work, in some cases several times. This equates to verifiers spending excess time on projects where those delivering the construction do not get it right first time, potentially to the detriment of projects who diligently check compliance of work before calling verifiers to site.

The current system of building standards fees, which is based on the application of an estimated costs of works to a standard fee scale, delivers resources to local authorities to carry out their duties, including the inspections and checks required through their ‘reasonable inquiry’. A verifier’s planned reasonable inquiry, and the resources they expend, increases based on how well a project is managed and delivers compliant construction. This results in diligent construction projects receiving less verifier time than those who attempt to incorrectly use the verifier to assure compliance.