Building Standards Futures Board minutes: December 2025

Attendees and apologies

Ken Gourlay (KG) Chair, Chief Executive, Fife Council

Laura Shanks (LS), LABSS

Lee Thom (LT), LABSS

John-Paul Breslin (JPB), LABSS

Zoe Black (ZB), RIAS

Colin Proctor (CP), Scottish Futures Trust (SFT)

Robert Toomey (RT), RICS

Gavin Johnston (GJ), BE-ST

Jocelyne Fleming (JF), CIOB

Robert Storey (RS), SER

Mark Lawler (ML), SER, Certification Scheme Providers

Neil Mitchell (NM), Scottish Government

Stephen Garvin (SGa), Scottish Government

Colette Templeton (CT), Scottish Government

Fiona Sinclair (FS), Scottish Government

Cameron Murdoch (CM), Scottish Government

Ken Craig (KC), Scottish Government

Frank Doherty (FD), Scottish Government

Andrew Gayler (AG), Scottish Government

Danny Henderson (DH), Scottish Government

Apologies

Robert Nicol (RN), COSLA

Gordon Nelson (GN), FMB

Items and actions

Welcome 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted apologies.

The purpose of the meeting today is to provide a progress update on each of the workstreams. An update will also be provided by the Practice Unit on the Competency Framework and future audits of verifiers.

Since its first meeting in May 2019, the Board has provided support and challenge on the policy development needed to strengthen the building standards system in Scotland. 

Work has moved to a delivery phase over the course of the Board but there is still ongoing work with further changes to deliver recommendations from the Grenfell Phase 2 Report. A programme timeline paper will be presented during today’s meeting, highlighting future work.

Meeting Business

Note of meeting 22 – 12 August 2025

The note of the previous meeting was approved by the Board.

Action Points – Paper 112 (03/12/2025)

An update was provided on the outstanding actions. These have been completed and closed.

Collaborative Working

Building Standards

SGa provided an update.

Work is continuing on the energy standards review and is moving to stage 2 with the Public Consultation expected to go live before Christmas. The next Energy Working Group is taking place later today.

The Public Consultation to amend guidance within section 3.3 on flooding and ground water received 28 responses. Revised guidance is expected to be published in April 2026.

An update was provided on fire safety guidance. As a result of the Cameron House Fatal Accident Inquiry, Simon and Richard’s Law will come into force in April 2026. This will introduce stricter fire safety with future conversions of historic buildings to hotel accommodation required to have automatic fire suppression systems installed. This change covers premises with 15 rooms or more. The ban on the use of combustible external wall cladding systems will be extended to include hotels, guest houses, hostels and boarding houses.

Work continues with colleagues in the Cladding Directorate to ensure regulations are applied properly during remediation works.

Construction Leadership Forum (CLF)

The most recent meeting was held on 2 December 2025. No further update was provided as the CLF overlapped with the Certification Scheme Providers meeting therefore SGa couldn’t attend.

Licensing of Contractors Scheme

CT provided an update on behalf of GN who was unable to attend the meeting.

FMB’s communication and press campaign on License to Build will continue into 2026. A meeting took place last Thursday (27 November) with the Deputy Director, Building Professions Reform at MHCLG. The Home Owners Alliance (HOA) have also introduced a campaign supporting the push for licensing. Working together, FMB and HOA undertook a survey to understand home owners’ perception of builders.

On 12 November the FMB launched at Holyrood ‘Scotland’s 2026 builders' manifesto: ‘Growth from the Ground. This will be for the next Scottish Government to work with the UK Government to plan and implement. In the 2026 FMB Scotland’s builders’ manifesto (Growth from the Groud up), it is asked that the 2026 elected SG work with the UK Government on planning and implementing a licensing scheme for building firms within the repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) sector.

One of the 58 recommendations from the Grenfell Inquiry Report indicated the need for licensing of principle contractors. The UK Government have committed to this and all of the other recommendations.

The Retrofit Reform Advisory Panel, chaired by the Energy Consumer Minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, had its first meeting in July 2025 with the expectation to continue on a 6-weekly basis, with the aim to deliver licensing for retrofit installation.

There was an update provided on the Floodready Inquiry which recommended that there should be licensing surrounding the competence of installers and builders carrying out flood prevention measures.

Building Standards: Practice Unit

AR provided an update to the Board.

Verifiers Professional Competency Framework

Professor John Cole’s report on Compliance and Enforcement indicated the need to strengthen skills and training within the workforce.

The Workforce Strategy one of the original FB workstreams was created to support the development of the Competency Assessment Framework. This was aimed at  assisting building standards staff in identifying skills that required further development. The skills builder platform has been developed and is operated by the Scottish Building Standards Hub. The Workforce Strategy took forward work to put in place the graduate and modern apprenticeship courses with some funding now being provided by BSD to support this initiative.

Phase 2 of the Grenfell report brought competency to the frontline. Work to develop a new competency model in Scotland is taking into account changes to the English and Welsh systems as well as  building on the progress already achieved in Scotland.

To support the introduction of the new competency model a Steering Group (CSG) was set up. Work to review has resulted in a revised set of competencies have been implemented and a reduction in key competencies  from 384 to 52.

A Peer review system, managed by LABSS, has been developed and implemented from October 2025. All managers and team leaders will need to be peer reviewed. A formal review of the process will be undertaken in quarter 3 of 2026 with the intention of identifying any improvements. The findings will be presented to the CSG by the end of 2026. BSD have made it clear that the model for Scotland will assist all 32 verifiers and are working closely with LABSS and the Hub to ensure success.

Audit of Verifiers

The 32 local authority verifiers in Scotland are appointed by Ministers, for a period of normally six years, subject to meeting the agreed performance targets. The current appointment period runs to 2029.

The performance of verifiers who are responsible for administering the building standards system is monitored by BSD using the Operating Framework for verifiers and Performance Framework for verifiers.  

BSD regularly meet with verifiers to discuss any constraints and Improvement Plans are provided where performance drops under a specific percentage. While engagement visits with verifiers took place before Covid-19 and have happened since formal auditing has not been undertaken for a number of years.

RSM UK have been appointed to undertake the audits for verification. These will begin post June 2026 and will include a two day onsite visit. The aim of this exercise is for verifiers to have a positive experience. The audits will provide BSD with a check on performance as well as procedures to support the reappointment process. The aim of the contractor is to provide a positive experience and an introductory meeting with LABSS has been set up.

There was a discussion surrounding the relevance these KPOs have in terms of certification, it was advised that they aren’t directly linked for the use of certification however this will be picked up during the audits in some capacity. An update on certification will be provided later in the meeting.

It was agreed that an update on the audit process will be provided to the Board in quarter 3 of 2026, around October/November.

Action: An update on the introducation of Verifier auditing to be added to the agenda for quarter 3 of 2026. 

Delivery Model Workstream

CM provided an update

Workstream update

Meeting 11 of the Delivery Model Working Group (DMWG) took place on 6 November. The aim of the meeting was to provide a workstream progress update while gaining agreement for the direction of the workstream and an update on year-3 building warrant fee levels.

The SBSH Operational Support Group continues to meet frequently and BSD continue their 6 weekly liaison meeting with the Hub directors.

In 2024 BSD undertook a Local Authority resource and investment exercise following the implementation of the 3 year building warrant fee model. The exercise was implemented to allow LAs to provide BSD with information on their future business plans and identify how they plan to reinvest into the system, with the additional fees. The data collected was presented to the Minister to support the decision on the year 2 fee increase.

BSD wrote to LA CEOs and Building Standards Managers in July 2025, informing them that the exercise would be repeated. Returns were due by 23 October. Some LAs required deadline extensions however to date, 31/32 LAs have provided their returns. The very positive return rate was noted and BSD thanked LABSS for their assistance in supporting this work.

Early analysis is showing an increased number of verifiers with recruitment plans for future. With all verifiers identifying they are committed to including new posts when possible. Investment in training and access to training materials via the hub and the Learning portal feature strongly. With a good number of authorities investing in IT. There are however a number of verifiers who are still facing organisation wide restrictions as well as reduced building warrant income.

Monthly compliance capacity data on the number of inspections and checks continues to be carried out.

The information gathered will be used as evidence being submitted to the Cabinet Secretary to support the decision on year 3 fee levels. Impacts assessments have been carried out and the legislative changes will be laid in parliament in January 2026, following a positive decision with an implementation of April 2026.

Optimal Economics have been commissioned to look at the future funding models for the SBSH. This work is currently ongoing. Optimal have provided a draft report which BSD are in the process of reviewing.

RT happy to pick up on work mentioned regarding re-entry level surveyors. AR to pick this up with RT.

Action: RT and AR to discuss work surrounding re-entry level surveyors.

Year 3 Building Warrant Fees – Paper 113 (03/12/2025)

The paper was provided prior to the meeting, CM spoke to this.

Optimal Economics were commissioned to undertake research to review and consider the impact and reinvestment of increased building warrant fee rates in Scotland.

The increase in building warrant fees in April 2024 was modelled to deliver an additional  building warrant fee income of £5 million, relative to the average income over 2017/18 to 2021/22. Fee income in 2024/25 was £35.2 million. An increase of only £2.2 million  (£33.0 million in 2023/24). This translates to an actual increase of only £1.1 million compared to the modelled average. Building warrant fees didn’t increase as anticipated due to the falling building warrant application numbers (since 2021/2022). The research found that if building warrants had not reduced then the model would have delivered more income than anticipated. 

Next steps include undertaking a review of building standards legislation and guidance on issues identified through the case studies as well as feedback from verifiers. Possible legislation and guidance changes are required to support the introduction of the Compliance Plan approach to strengthen procedural compliance. Further research may also be required in relation to High Risk Building warrant applications and associated pre-application fees from 2027 onwards. Originally modelled as part of the 3-year model, these were postponed to allow more time for work on the Compliance Plan.

Year 3 Building Warrant Fee levels

A project to validate the proposed building warrant fee rates in years 2 and 3 to reflect any changes such as inflation and to ensure the level of income modelled is delivered has been completed. The models assumptions were revised to reflect different inflation rates, earnings growth and SBSH costs. The proposed rates were shared and BSD sought agreement on these.

The Board endorsed the proposed fee levels from April 2026 with the caveat that approval would be sought from the Cabinet Secretary in the coming weeks.  

CP raised the point that it would be useful to better understand the technical work that verifiers do that doesn’t get recorded. NM advised that building standards teams have a very wide remit covering statutory and non-statutory work therefore this can be challenging to capture. The last public consultation did include questions in relation to funding for these different services and that further work would be undertaken by BSD in 2026.

Future work timeline – Paper 114 (03/12/2025)

The future work programme is set out in the paper. Once a decision on the year 3 fees has been taken this will be revisited in 2026.

Compliance Plan Workstream

FD provided an update to the Board.

Workstream update – Paper 115 (03/12/2025) and Delivering the Compliance Plan Approach (CPA), guidance stages

Delivery of guidance on the introduction and use of the Compliance Plan is the workstreams main focus.

Initial guidance will be delivered as two documents, the first document to be published before the end of December 2025 is for verifiers and is aimed at providing information on using the compliance plan approach. The second guidance document will set out the Compliance Plan for Industry and seek voluntary adoption. A decision on commencement date for both documents has still to be taken.

The Early Adopters scheme has continued after the initial project with Fife council on the Dunfermline Learning Campus. There are 4 projects currently involved in the scheme and providing engagement and feedback.

A project to review the current KPO 2 and produce recommendations is ongoing. The purpose of this is to have a revised KPO that will monitor the effectiveness of the compliance measures being delivered through strengthening. The change implementation for this is likely to match the legislative change.

The most recent meeting of the Compliance Plan Working Group (CPWG) took place on 17 October 2025. The Group considered the draft guidance and an update was provided by RIAS following it’s meeting with the professional bodies group which is considering the CPM accreditation scheme. CPM registration will be mandatory in the future.

Engagement with stakeholders continues to support the introduction of the Compliance Plan.

Two risks were highlighted, and FD sought input from the Board:

• How does BSD ensure verifiers follow the guidance?
• How does BSD ensure industry follows the guidance?

SGa advised the meeting that the compliance plan will only become mandatory following a change in legislation. While a proposal for a Building Standards Bill has been made, a decision by the Parliamentary team is still required. Any changes to legislation, if the proposal is successful, are not expected before year 2 or 3 of the next parliamentary term (Scottish Parliament elections May 2026). The role of the relevant person was discussed. Further work on this is being taken forward through the compliance work and there is potential for a question to be included in the forthcoming Section 2, Fire call for evidence.

There was a discussion about the additional time resourcing in local authorities required to implement changes. FD advised that BSD are mindful of this and reminded the Board that building warrant fees have been increased over the last 2 years to support this. However, feedback from verifiers to inform the change is welcomed.

LS questioned the wording on risk number 2 in relation to “LABSS not supporting CPA proposals”. It was felt that this was not the case but that LABSS are mindful of additional pressure on verifiers at this time. The wording would be reconsidered to reflect the uncertainty of verifiers not following the guidance.

Action: FD to reconsider Compliance Risk number 2, to reflect the uncertainty of verifiers being unable to follow new guidance.

Certification Workstream

AG provided an update.

Workstream update

Two pieces of research have been commissioned this year with Pye Tait Consulting as the contractor:

• A fundamental review of certification
• Research in Certification Fees

BSD worked with Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) alongside Pye Tait Consulting on the Fundamental Review research. The research highlighted the value of certification to the building standards system but acknowledged that there is still the opportunity to strengthen this. An action plan has been created and the areas for improvement have been ranked in order of priority. Continued joint working with stakeholders, Scheme Providers and Verifiers will be required. The action plans were agreed with the Certification Working Group (now chaired by Nigel Kerr, Fife Council) in November.

Research on certification fees considered whether moving from the current discount model should be changed to a surcharge for building warrant applications where certification is not used. The research indicated support from scheme providers however verifiers feel the current discount based approach is preferable and voiced concerned on the impact of change in terms of their income and potential resource implications. 

An in-person Scheme Provider Group meeting took place on 2 December 2025 where options for tackling the research outcomes were discussed.

Research looking at Schedule 1 (exempt work) and Schedule 3 (work not requiring a warrant, which must still meet the requirements of the regulations), is currently out to tender. This is being led by the Practice Unit with input being provided on the certification elements. 

A research specification to look at a replacement to the current certification register has been prepared.

The contractor undertaking audits of Certification and Verification is now in place. Certification audits will be undertaken between January 2026 to March 2026 with preparation underway.

Future work timeline

A paper was shared with the Board, AG spoke to this highlighting the future key pieces of work planned for the Certification workstream.

Futures Board Programme Timeline 2029

Programme Timeline – Paper 116 (03/12/2015)

A paper was issued to the Board prior to the meeting, CT spoke to this.

The paper highlighted the work undertaken and completed so far, as well as how the Futures Board may look in the coming years. Work is planned out from now until 2029.

The Boards input was sought on continuing in its role providing guidance and oversight through the next stages up to 2029. It is expected that the role for FB meetings will be lighter in 2026, with the potential of 2 meetings in the year and a third to be organised, only if required.

The members agreed to continue in their current role to support ongoing and future work, while supporting the proposal for future meetings. 

Action: A submission to the Cabinet Secretary to be prepared advising of the Board's continued role. 

Futures Board Risk Reporting

Risk Register – Paper 117 (03/12/2025)

CT led the Group through the risk register advising of updates on each of the risks. No new risks have been added.

The Board was content with the Risk Register.

AOCB

Date of next meeting

June and November 2026.

Actions

• An update on the introduction of Verifier auditing to be added to the agenda for quarter 3 of 2026.
• RT and AR to discuss work surrounding re-entry level surveyors.
• FD to reconsider Compliance Risk number 2, to reflect the uncertainty of verifiers being unable to follow new guidance.
• A submission to the Cabinet Secretary to be prepared advising of the Boards continued role.