Scotland continues to progress fire safety regime

Over the past year the Scottish government has continued to reform its national building standards system in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, to build on the work previously reported.

As part of the Building Standards Futures Board work streams, the main developments have been the formal commencement of a national hub for building standards, consultation on proposals to strengthen existing building safety legislation, and the passage of an act to establish a cladding remediation programme.

The government has also formed a working group to follow up on the recommendations of an inquiry into a fatal fire.

The hub will continue to work closely with Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) and the nation's Building Standards Division (BSD), as it did during the pilot, to strengthen the Scottish building standards system.

It will support the transformation of building standards services at local authorities, and the construction of quality, compliant buildings through the building warrant process.

This will be done by working with local authority teams and the wider construction industry across three main areas:

• providing a range of building standards system services
• supporting national hubs of expertise and operational partnerships
• supporting learning and development.

The hub's work will be led by two directors – myself and James Whiteford, former lead building standards surveyor at Scottish Borders Council – with oversight by a cross-sector advisory board comprising representatives from the Scottish government, LABSS, local authority senior managers, certifiers and industry, as well as Fife Council as host.

The key priorities for the hub over the coming months are to:

• circulate a memorandum of understanding between the hub and local authorities to chief executives and building standards managers, outlining the services it will provide to building standards teams
• embed the links between the hub and the local authority network through LABSS' consortia technical working group and digital delivery group, providing necessary support
• recruit staff to enable full functionality of the hub-supported building standards system services, focusing in particular on in-house assessment of Scottish-type approval scheme applications, and the publication of technical and procedural information papers. 

Generally, there was broad support for the proposals, which respondents typically agreed provided a clearer, stronger deterrent that should help improve compliance, enable more effective enforcement and ensure building safety.

The proposals were also seen as offering greater flexibility to local authorities and helping align Scotland with other parts of the UK.

On the strength of this endorsement, the Scottish government will seek to amend relevant sections of the 2003 Act as follows.

• Section 21 will be amended to enable a local authority to take action against owners and make them accountable where a building is being occupied illegally.
• Section 27 of the act will be amended to include the option to remove unauthorised work.
• This section will also be amended to make provision for a separate stop notice, enabling a local authority to have work stopped until the owner or developer gains consent to continue it.
• Section 48 will be amended to increase penalties for offences, and include the option of a two-year custodial sentence.

However, proposals for a ten-year limit on taking action after acceptance of a completion certificate under section 27 met with a mixed response, with some wanting a shorter time limit and others 20 years. The government will therefore carry out further research before finalising any related policy.

The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 will establish a cladding assurance register to give homeowners and residents confidence in assessment and remediation works on their buildings.

Ministers will also have powers to establish a responsible developer's scheme to support engagement with the industry and encourage companies to pay for or carry out remediation work, although such powers are yet to be established in secondary legislation.

The cladding remediation programme aims to safeguard residents and owners by addressing the risk to human life directly or indirectly created or exacerbated by external wall cladding systems, as well as the negative consequences for buying, selling or remortgaging flats.

To support the programme, the Scottish government has published a Single Building Assessment specification document. This outlines a methodology for determining the risk to buildings covered by The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

The working group will consider the following recommendations from the inquiry.

• The Scottish government should look at requiring future conversions of historic buildings that will be used as hotel accommodation to have active fire suppression systems installed.
• The group will explore the special risks that hotels and similar premises may pose through hidden cavities or voids, varying standards of work, age and the divergence from current standards, and to consider revising existing guidance accordingly.

The group will consider several other matters related to fire safety as well.