Scottish building regulations - fire safety review and compliance: call for evidence

3 The role of the Compliance Plan Manager in legislation

As part of the Compliance Plan Approach (CPA) to compliance with building regulations and standards the role of Compliance Plan Manager (CPM) will be introduced on defined building warrant projects.

The CPM will be introduced as a mandatory requirement after legislation is amended, when the role and its appointment by the Relevant Person (RP) is defined. It is anticipated that as a minimum a Compliance Plan Manager will be a construction professional and have accreditation from an anticipated industry led CPM competency scheme. The CPM is appointed by the RP (normally the building owner), not the builder or developer. The only time in terms of appointment where this cannot be the case is where the owner is the developer/builder.

This is to ensure that the CPM can act without bias, or conflict of interest, and provide their core function of supporting persons whose role it is to submit the building warrant Completion Certificate to meet their statutory requirements.

The CPM must be a competent construction professional with a significant range of knowledge and experience across a wide and often unpredictable variety of contexts.

The Compliance Plan Approach is built on a principle of transparency of actions and behaviours. Planned actions to evidence compliance with building regulations are recorded on the building warrant compliance plan, together with identification of those expected and contracted to deliver the evidence.

The Compliance Plan will subsequently be updated by the CPM and local authority verifier to record the success, or otherwise of the planned actions. The CPM role is to provide continuity of compliance oversight from design to completion on behalf of the RP; professional oversight to manage the building standards compliance process from start to finish.

The CPM’s role is not to replace the responsibility of others, contractually or ethically, to deliver a building which complies with the building regulations.

The CPM duties will be discharged when the approved CP is completed and delivered, the completion certificate accepted by the verifier and the owner is provided with the building warrant compliance information.

It is intended that through legislative change, that the CPM will have a duty to report to the verifier, prior to completion certificate acceptance, any non-compliance with the building warrant and building regulations which have not otherwise been notified to the verifier.

This final aspect has been highlighted by stakeholders as central to the success of the role.

The Compliance Plan Manager (CPM) role received high levels of support through a previous public consultation (Building regulations - compliance and enforcements: consultation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space) in terms of the concept, its potential value, need for a standardised competency framework for the role, and its independence. In developing the role further stakeholders have expressed a need for this independence to be underpinned by duties in legislation.

Question 10

We are considering how to ensure that the Compliance Plan Manager can act independently and in the wider public interest. We also need to ensure that the Relevant Person, and/or those employed by the Relevant Person, act in accordance with requirements of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and the supporting secondary legislation.

10(a) Do you agree that the Compliance Plan Manager role requires duties and that corresponding offences should be set out in legislation?

Yes / No / Not sure

Please provide any evidence or examples to support views, contribution or comments.

Comments:

10(b) Do you agree that local authority verifiers should be notified if the Relevant Person or their delegates do not act in accordance with the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and the supporting secondary legislation?

Yes / No / Not sure

Please provide any evidence or examples to support views, contribution or comments.

Comments: