Q&A come under scrutiny. The skills of building control are going to be used under section 13, which looks at the fire and structural safety of these buildings, to provide them with certification to be able to continue to be occupied under a safety case review. Will this change the role of building control? Building control surveyors will have to be registered under the new regime Lorna Stimpson Under control The Building Safety Act is introducing the biggest reforms the sector has seen. Lorna Stimpson, chief executive of the Local Authority Building Control, discusses its implications for the profession T he new Building Safety Act brings fundamental changes to the way building control operates, including: new duties and accountabilities for those responsible for the safety of high-rise and complex buildings; a Building Safety Regulator (BSR); and a new building safety framework, with a gateway stop/go approval process at each stage of design and construction. The BSR will be responsible for overseeing the safety and standards of all buildings. A new competency framework will also be introduced, with a register for building control professionals, opening in October 2023. From 1 April 2023, the full rollout of the framework will result in the new gateway approval regime taking effect for new higher-risk buildings, while existing higher-risk buildings will need to be registered between April and October 2023. Lorna Stimpson is chief executive of Local Authority Building Control (LABC), the body representing the public sector building control profession. Here, she answers questions on what the new regime means for her organisation. What are the implications for building control under the new regime? There are enormous implications for public service building control. The biggest change is the registration of the profession and new competence requirements. The other is that public service building control will have a duty to support the BSR in its work on new and existing higher-risk buildings. In buildings of seven storeys or more, or above 18 metres where there are two or more residential units, in refurbishment or new build, the BSR will be the building control authority, but will draw upon building control to be part of its multidisciplinary team. Local authority surveyors will form part of the regulators multidisciplinary team, alongside Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors and fire service officers. These teams will regulate new in-scope buildings and those going through refurbishment, and will have a significant role in assessing and certifying existing high-rise buildings in England that will also be required under the new legislation. Will building control look at anything differently? Yes, certainly in occupied buildings. Around 12,500 existing high-risk buildings will Building control is building control, regardless of who undertakes that role. There will be a need for local authority building control to work in a different way as part of the multidisciplinary team, but the biggest impact on the profession is the registration of building control surveyors. Within public service building control, we have around 3,500 surveyors and technical support. If they want to continue to practise, everyone who works in the profession, whether public or private sector, will be required to join the new building inspector and building control approver registers. This will require proof of competence at various levels of building control surveying. HSE/BSR is currently working on that with LABC and private sector building control. Proof of competence is likely to be competence validation, either through the Engineering Council or an ISO 17024 standard, which LABC has established through the creation of the Building Safety Competence Foundation (BSCF). What is the BSCF? It was formed last year as a not-for-profit community interest company, to deliver competence validation industry wide, and is the body under which LABC has developed its ISO/IEC 17024 certification of persons scheme. The foundation is measuring and proving competence of surveyors in the public and private sectors, and LABC expects it to achieve UKAS accreditation this summer. This will enable it to provide the proof of competence assessments required to meet the new building control regimes registration criteria. Is LABC ready for the changes? I sit on the joint regulators group and the interim industry competence committee, and, post-Grenfell, weve been working with experts who are formulating policy. Weve tried to interpret this emerging policy so that we can prepare for the new regime. I feel LABC is as prepared as it possibly could be. www.cibsejournal.com August 2022 61