High risk buildings - verification during construction: industry guidance

1. Glossary

Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC): AEC stands for Architectural, Engineering and Construction, which encompasses the collaborative processes involved in the design, construction, and operation of buildings and infrastructure. This abbreviation is commonly used in the construction industry, particularly in discussions about project management, design standards, and building regulations within Construction contexts.

Building standards register: The statutory register of building warrant applications, completion certificate submissions and other relevant documents and information. There are 32 building standards registers, held by each Scottish local authority. Registers are publicly accessible and provided in two parts. Part I containing details and Part II containing documents.

Building warrant: The statutory approval required before any construction work to a building of a description to which building regulations apply can commence.

Built compliance: The evidence that a completed building meets the requirements of building regulations and has been constructed in accordance with the approved building warrant plans and details.

BSD: Building Standards Division of Scottish Government.

Completion certificate submission: A statutory submission by the Relevant Person needed to confirm that a building has been constructed, converted or demolished in accordance with the relevant building warrant and complies with the building regulations.

Compliance Plan (CP): The document which is intended to evidence compliance with building regulations and building warrant procedures through appropriately planned and undertaken actions and information provision.

Compliance Plan Manager (CPM): A new role to develop, oversee and deliver the completed compliance plan on behalf of a Relevant Person, to be introduced through legislative change

Compliant building: A building which is constructed in compliance with the building regulations in force at the time of its construction and performs as intended by the building standards.

Construction Compliance Notification Plan (CCNP): When the verifier grants the warrant, they will include a CCNP. This will detail the particular stages of the work they wish to inspect, acceptable alternative methods to check compliance and evidence which should be provided to them

Contractor Design Portions (CDP): A portion of the construction project design, CDPs are used where a specialist designer/subcontractor is required to design specific elements of the work.^[1]

Customer Agreement: A Customer Agreement for complex projects is likely to cover a range of aspects from pre-application through to completion on site. It should include the anticipated time to issue the first report which varies from the normal 20 day target for a first technical report on a building warrant application. Customer Agreements are made between the building warrant applicant/duly authorised agent and the building standards verifier.

Delivery team: Those tasked within a project to design and deliver a building compliant with building regulations.

Design compliance: The evidence that a design meets the requirements of building regulations.

Design team: Those tasked within a project to design a building.

Duly authorised agent: The term used in legislation and building standards forms for an agent submitting an application, or signing a completion certificate, on behalf of an applicant or Relevant Person.

High Risk Buildings (HRB): A definition of buildings which are to be subject of the full compliance plan approach, confirmed through public consultation. See section 6 Projects in Scope.

LABSS: Local Authority Building Standards Scotland.

Legislative change: The act of amending through the parliamentary process the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and associated secondary legislation.

Prewarrant stage: A period before the first building warrant application is submitted for a project.

Procedural compliance: Compliance with the procedures and process set out in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and subordinate legislation and guidance, supporting the legal requirements including that building warrant approval is required before work can physically commence on site.

Project: The entity or entities which are delivering the construction activities which require building warrant approval.

Public interest: The health, safety, welfare and convenience of persons in or about buildings and of others who may be affected by buildings or matters connected with buildings, and furthering the conservation of fuel and power, and furthering the achievement of sustainable development.

Reasonable inquiry: The term used in primary legislation to describe the required actions of verifiers when considering approval or rejection of a completion certificate submission.

Relevant Person (RP): Relevant Person – as defined by the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, but can be summarised as:

• the owner, tenant or developer doing the building work or conversion themselves; or
• the owner, tenant or developer who has employed a builder to do work for them; or
• the owner, where the tenant, developer or builder has not submitted the certificate when they should have done so.

SBSH: Scottish Building Standards Hub.

SFRS: Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Stages or staging and staged warrants: An optional process where a building standards verifier may accept a building warrant as an initial building warrant application followed by agreed amendments to warrant covering all portions of work.

Verifiers: Those appointed by Scottish Ministers to protect the public interest by providing an independent check of applications for building warrants to construct or demolish buildings, to provide services, fittings or equipment in buildings, or to convert buildings, and to carry out reasonable inquiry^[2] into completion certificates submitted to them.

Work or building work: Construction work which requires application for building warrant.