Building Regulations: The Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard: Stage 2
Overview
Scottish building regulations set minimum standards applicable to new buildings and to new work to existing buildings.
In December 2022, Ministers committed to give effect to Alex Rowley MSP's Proposed Domestic Building Environmental Standards (Scotland) Bill to deliver ‘a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard’. Stakeholder engagement commenced in January 2023 and an industry Working Group was formed in June 2023.
In July 2024 our stage one consultation sought views on the form and approach that a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard, implemented through building regulations, should adopt and on the proposed delivery timetable.
Fulfilling Ministers’ commitment to Parliament, The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024 were subsequently laid in December 2024, introducing a requirement to submit design and construction stage compliance statements on specified energy and environmental standards. These regulations applied a coming into force date of 31 March 2028 to enable the construction sector to prepare for the changes.
As the development of the Stage 2 proposals, supporting guidance and assessment tools has taken longer than orginally anticipated, the timetable set out in the Stage 1 consultation has been reviewed. Following analysis of consultation responses, we now aim to publish guidance and approved methodologies under standard 6.1 in Autumn 2027.
Consequently, to maintain a sufficient industry preparation period, we will amend the implementation date in regulations to Autumn 2029. We will also consider the most appropriate approach, including introducing the standard in full, phasing it in, or supporting a voluntary adoption before compliance becomes mandatory.
This stage two consultation seeks views on proposed energy and environmental performance targets for the new standard and on proposals for an enhanced compliance process, including guidance to support the requirement to submit energy and environmental design and construction statements. Items related to indoor air quality and overheating are also presented.
The consultation proposals are based on the themes that have characterised the review since the beginning of 2023 with the intent to deliver:
-
- Improvements to the setting of energy performance and ventilation standards for new buildings, leading to lower energy demand (and reduced running costs) and assurance of a healthy indoor environment
- Improvements to the design and construction process to give greater assurance that compliance, and therefore the performance sought, is delivered in practice
- A level of action, deliverable at a national level, which reflects the needs of building users and strategic policy objectives around climate change, energy policy and the built environment
Interim domestic and non-domestic energy performance calculation methodologies are presented as work in progress tools, to be developed further before being adopted as approved methodologies prior to implementation.
By reducing operational energy demand, improving ventilation and indoor air quality, and strengthening construction assurance, the new standard will support the achievement of our statutory 2045 Net Zero targets, 2040 Fuel Poverty targets and 2030 Child Poverty targets as well as wider Scottish Government policy objectives, including those set out in the Environment Strategy, Heat in Buildings Strategy and Housing to 2040.
Read the consultation paper. The consultation paper contains full background information for this consultation. You may find it useful to read or refer to while responding.
Consultation questions preview
The consultation questions are included here for your reference. Please click 'Begin consultation' at the bottom of this page to proceed.
1. With reference to the Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) at Annex A of the consultation paper, are you able to provide any information, in confidence, that could aid in the production of the final BRIA?
2. Do you have any comments on the merits of introducing the standard on a mandatory basis through a phased implementation?
3. Do you have any comments on the merits of introducing the proposed standard initially on a voluntary basis?
4. Do you agree with the proposal to present unregulated loads as information within reported outputs from the compliance calculation?
5. Do you agree with the proposal to introduce a target space heating rate that only includes elements of the specification related to the fabric performance?
6. Do you have any comments on the roof U-value proposals across the Good and Best Practice options noting that these represent a relaxation in the level of challenge for this element?
7. What uplift to the current energy standards for new dwellings do you consider appropriate as an outcome of this review?
8. Do you support an approach to enable recognition of higher efficiency generation within a development regardless of whether it takes place within individual buildings or a communal heating system?
9. Are you currently designing or building dwellings to the February 2023 standards and able to share cost information in confidence for any of the available heat solutions?
10. Do you support the proposal to allow the target rates for dwellings to fluctuate based only on the location, orientation, archetype and heat source of the dwelling?
11. Do you agree with the proposal to present the target rates for dwellings within a target range table, replacing the notional dwelling specification currently shown in Table 6.1 in the Technical Handbook?
12. Do you agree with the proposal to set a provision in guidance for a maximum ‘upper limit’ to the declared design air infiltration rate?
13. Do you have any views or comments on the development and usability of the consultation version of the HEM/Scottish wrapper for new dwellings?
14. Do you agree with the proposal to recognise a modified version of PHPP as an additional tool that implements the approved methodology for standard 6.1 ‘Energy demand’ for new dwellings?
15. Do you have any comments on the cooling efficiency proposals across the Medium and High options noting that these represent a relaxation in the level of challenge for this element?
16. What level of uplift to the current energy standards for new non-domestic buildings do you consider should be introduced as an outcome of this review?
17. Do you support an approach to enable recognition of higher efficiency generation within a development regardless of whether it takes place within individual buildings or is communal?
18. Do you agree with the proposal to allow the building target rates to fluctuate based only on the location, building type, activity types, heat source and orientation of the new building?
19. Do you agree with the proposal to present the target rates for new non-domestic buildings within a target range table, replacing the notional building specification currently shown in Table 6.1 in the Technical Handbook?
20. Do you agree with the proposal to set a provision in guidance for an ‘upper limit’ to the declared design air infiltration rate?
21. Do you have any views on the development and usability of the consultation version of the Scottish SBEM v7?
22. Do you agree with the proposal to recognise a modified version of PHPP as an additional tool that implements the approved methodology for standard 6.1 ‘Energy demand’ for new non-domestic buildings?
23. Do you agree with the proposal to accept any ventilation system/solution of achieving the performance sought in standard 3.14 ‘Ventilation’?
24. Do you have any views on additional guidance for MVHR systems that would be beneficial to be included in future guidance?
25. Do you have any views on the proposal to decouple the link between fabric air infiltration and ventilation solution?
26. With regards to the proposal to reference the use of PHPP as an additional overheating risk assessment methodology option, do you know of any risks and opportunities that should be considered to inform the development of draft guidance?
27. Do you have any comments on the structure of the proposed Building Standards Energy and Environmental Compliance Handbook and its application for the production of the Energy and Environmental Design and Construction Statements?
28. Do you have any comments on the presentation of the principle of communication and collaboration throughout the Handbook?
29. Do you have any comments on how the use of the Handbook could help to mitigate the risks associated with achieving compliance?
30. Do you have any comments on the emphasis made within the Handbook on robust evidence gathering and effective process management to aid in achieving compliance?
31. Do you agree with the roles and responsibilities of the actors identified in the Handbook related to the production of the Energy and Environmental Design and Construction statements?
32. The Handbook focusses on five energy and environmental considerations:
• Airtight construction
• High performance insulation
• Thermal bridge free design
• Ventilation
• Optimised energy use
Do you have any comments on the use of these considerations as main themes throughout the Handbook?
33. Focussing on the associated schedules to the Handbook, do you have any comments on the actions identified to prove compliance with the standards?
Useful information about responding to this consultation
As you complete your response, each page will provide the option to 'Save and come back later' at the bottom. This means you can save your progress and return to the consultation at any time before it closes. If you don't use this feature and leave the consultation midway through, your response will be lost.
Once you have submitted your response, you can enter your email address to get a pdf copy of your answers sent to you.
On the 'About You' page at the end of this consultation, organisations will have the opportunity to tell us more about their work and/or how their response was informed.
After the consultation has closed there will be a few months delay before any responses are published. This is because we must check any responses to be published abide by our Terms of Use.
An analysis report will usually be published some months after the consultation has closed. This report will summarise the findings based on all responses submitted. It will be published on the Scottish Government website and you may be notified about it if you choose to share your email address with us. You can also join our consulation mailing list where we regularly list newly published analysis reports (as well as new consultations).
Give us your views
Interests
- Building and Planning
- Business, Industry and Innovation
- Environment and Climate Change
- Housing and Regeneration
- Main hub
Share
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook