The final report following the The Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety has now been published. Below we have highlighted some of the key points.

  • The roles and responsibilities of those procuring, designing, constructing and maintaining buildings are unclear;
  • The package of regulations and guidance (in the form of Approved Documents) can be ambiguous and inconsistent;
  • The processes that drive compliance with building safety requirements are weak and complex with poor record keeping and change control in too many cases;
  • Competence across the system is patchy;
  • The product testing, labelling and marketing regime is opaque and insufficient;
  • It must clarify roles and responsibilities. It must raise and assure competence levels

Whilst some of the recommendations can be delivered in the short term, some will require primary legislation and in the meantime industry must start ‘living’ the cultural shift that is required – the most important element of achieving that will be leadership from within industry.

The above reinforces the Product Process People (PPP) initiative about having evidence around compliance,  competency and full test evidence.  More guidance will be available shortly and what this means for FIS members,  in the mean time download and read the full report here.