Building standards - Futures Board Programme: workstream information
A programme to support sustainable improvements to the building standards system and increase the level of compliance with building regulations.
Verification delivery model workstream
Purpose and approach
The verification delivery model workstream has been focusing on strengthening the building standards system. Its overall aims are:
- drive efficiencies and improve compliance
- ensure investment in skills and new technology
- increase capacity within the building standards service to deliver across all types of construction work
- increase consistency and strengthen resilience across the system
Progress
Following a successful two year pilot phase, the Scottish Building Standards Hub (SBSH) was launched in 2024. Working, in partnership with Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) and Fife Council, the Scottish Government established the pilot hub to test the proposals and assess the effectiveness of a national building standards hub.
Hosted by Fife Council, the SBSH is an independent stand-alone specialist unit supporting all 32 local authority building standards services. Its high-level objectives are to support increased consistency and capacity at a national level, to provide resilience and support the drive for efficiencies and to lead the development of learning and development for verifiers.
Building warrant fees
In 2024, BSD introduced a three year model to increase building warrant fees annually, depending on verifier performance and monitoring of how additional income is reinvested. Increasing fees on 1 April in 2024, 2025 and 2026 has provided greater funding certainty to local authority verifiers which has been used to improve service delivery and support strengthened compliance.
High-level local authority reporting and monitoring measures and capacity monitoring tools, have been implemented by BSD to track how additional fee income is being reinvested.
Ongoing work
Next steps include:
- legislative change – Building Warrant Fees. A review of the current fees model to inform the development of a future funding approach
- resource and investment exercise. Analysis of 2025 data was used to brief the Cabinet Secretary on how increased fees was being reinvested into building standards teams. BSD will continue engagement with verifiers throughout 2026 and repeat the exercise later in the year
Contact
Email: buildingstandards@gov.scot