Building regulations - proposed changes to energy and environmental standards: stage 2 consultation and BRIA

4 Regulatory and EU Alignment Impacts

4.1 Intra UK trade and international trade

An assessment was made on the impact of these proposals to international trade and also in respect of trade within the UK. The measures proposed relate to the function or performance of construction work and how that is reported. They do not prescribe measures which:

• have the potential to affect imports or exports of a specific good or service, or groups of goods or services;
• affect trade flows with one or more countries; or
• include different requirements for domestic and foreign businesses.

At present, the proposals do not define technical regulations or conformity assessment procedures for which a relevant standard does not exist. Accordingly, proposals do not require a submission of a Technical Barrier to Trade notification to the World Trade Organisation. This assessment will be further reviewed as part of an updated full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment.

4.2 EU alignment

The subject of this review has material relevance to impact on the Scottish government’s policy to maintain alignment with the EU.

Energy standards set though building regulations formed part of the transposition of Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings, with changes to our regulations as recent as June 2023 demonstrating awareness of issues relevant to the transposition of that Directive.

Recent amendment of this Directive as (EU)2024/1275, such as the phasing out of fossil fuels from new buildings, have already been put in place in support of our domestic heat decarbonisation agenda, through the 2024 New Build Heat Standard.

The ongoing review, examining changes to performance targets and processes, will assess the continued opportunities for, and risk to, alignment. The topic of this review supports the more effective delivery of very low energy buildings.