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

The building regulations in Scotland contain standards that must be met. These are functional building standards, supported by guidance contained in the Technical Handbooks, which provide one or sometimes more, ways of complying with the standards. However, there is no requirement to follow the Technical Handbook guidance and alternative methods of meeting the requirements of any or all building standards may be taken. 

In Scotland, Section 5 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 states –

1. “Failure to comply with a guidance document does not render a person liable to civil or criminal proceedings.
2. But proof of compliance with such a document may be relied on in any proceedings (whether civil or criminal) as tending to negative liability for an alleged contravention of building regulations."

A common interpretation of this provision is that if the Technical Handbook guidance on Fire Safety is followed, one cannot be held liable for ‘non-compliance’ with the Building Regulations. Concern is raised on development seeking to comply with guidance rather than mandatory standards.

As part of the review of Section 2 (Fire), Scottish Government will explore whether solutions offered in guidance on compliance are themselves inadequate to address the risks which a given functional standard seeks to address or whether the scope of application of guidance is itself unclear, for example, where the example in guidance is not appropriate and an alternative fire engineering solution should be developed. This will include targeted consultation with appropriate stakeholders who are applying the guidance to designs and verifying those designs, following this call for evidence.

Examples of potential areas for development may be: 

• explore, through the Section 2 review, the adequacy of current guidance to addressing the risks associated with a given functional standard, including any potential to amend section 5 on tending to negative liability
   
• explore, in considering that the review of fire safety guidance should take a ‘clear and conservative approach to risk’, if demonstrating compliance to the building regulations should be threefold route:

1. guidance to be simple and conservative, with
2. performance/tenability criteria for the performance-based approach in legislation, and
3. full fire engineered solutions