FIS is inviting members to review and comment on our draft response to the Building Safety Regulator’s latest consultation on Category A and Category B works, ahead of a final submission at the end of May.

The consultation focuses on improving proportionality within the Higher-Risk Building (HRB) regime by reclassifying certain works and expanding the potential role of Competent Person Schemes (CPS). While the proposed reforms aim to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and speed up delivery, they also signal a significant shift in how compliance is managed.

The details of the consultation were presented at a workshop on 18th May.  The suggestion is to reclassify most in-flat works as Category B, this would mean many small projects inside flates, such as work on internal (non load bearing) partitions or fire door replacements are currently captured within Category A, creating a seemingly disproportionate levels of documentation and delay.  The consultation also seeks to recategorise smaller works in communal areas in a similar way. 

A number of critical issues were discussed that will form the core of the FIS response.

Mixed-use buildings – a key gap

One of the strongest themes from the meeting was the lack of consideration for mixed-use buildings.

The consultation currently focuses on residential units, but it was emphasised in the discussion that similar compartmented environments exist in other categories of space – including offices, retail spaces, and other commercial units. In these cases, comparable works could face very different regulatory treatment despite carrying similar levels of risk.

FIS is therefore questioning whether the current approach reflects modern building design and delivery, and is calling for greater consistency in how different unit types are treated. The response also highlights the need for clearer guidance to avoid confusion, particularly in projects where multiple uses sit within the same building.

Competence vs Capability – getting the balance right

Another key issue raised during the workshop was the shift towards competence-based regulation.

While members recognise the benefits of reducing reliance on prescriptive documentation, there is concern that current proposals place too much emphasis on individual competence, particularly through the expansion of self-certification schemes.

The FIS response stresses that successful delivery depends not only on skilled individuals, but also on organisational capability – including supervision, coordination, quality systems, and ongoing assurance. Existing certification schemes such as FIRAS and IFC were cited as providing this broader assurance, and members were clear that reforms should build on these frameworks rather than introducing new, overlapping accreditation requirements.

Guidance, clarity and practicality

Concerns about the practical implementation of the proposals, particularly around defining “small-scale” works using thresholds such as time and workforce. There was a strong view that these measures do not always align with real risk and could introduce further ambiguity.

As a result, FIS is calling for:

• Clearer, consolidated guidance
• Better alignment with real-world project delivery
• More practical examples to support consistent decision-making

Without this, there is a risk that the industry continues to default to Category A as a precaution, undermining the intended benefits of reform.

Have your say

FIS is now asking members to review the draft response and contribute any additional comments or examples from their own experience.

Deadline for comments: 26 May
Final submission: 28 May

This consultation represents a critical opportunity to shape how building safety regulation evolves, particularly for fit-out, refurbishment, and interiors work.

As Iain McIlwee commented during the session:

“This is about getting the balance right – reducing unnecessary burden without losing control of safety. But we need to make sure the system reflects how buildings are actually delivered.”

Members are encouraged to share feedback.  Details of the meeting and the draft response are available below.

See more news likes this

Ministers announce the introduction of legislation to tackle late payments and protect small businesses.

Small businesses will no longer be left chasing money they are already owed, as ministers today [Tuesday 19 May] introduce landmark legislation to end the scourge of late payments and back millions of sole traders, freelancers, and family firms across the country.

The Small Business Protections Bill (formally known as the Commercial Payments Bill) delivers the toughest crackdown on late payments in a generation – putting a clear duty on large firms to pay smaller suppliers on time and giving small businesses the certainty they need to keep investing, supporting jobs and growing their communities.

It comes as the Prime Minister and Business Secretary are expected to welcome small business owners to Downing Street to mark what leaders have called a “historic moment for small firms”.

Late payments close 38 businesses every single day because they are not paid on time. That’s the equivalent of 266 a week, and well over a thousand in any given month. For business owners, the impact is immediate and personal – forcing them to spend hours chasing invoices instead of running their businesses and putting jobs and livelihoods at risk.

The Bill fundamentally changes how businesses pay each other, putting an end to excessive delays and unfair practices that hit small firms hardest, through sweeping new reforms.

Iain McIlwee, FIS Chief Executive said:

“This is a historic and very good day for all in construction who have suffered from Late Payment and Retentions Abuse.  It isn’t the end, but my strong hope and belief it is the beginning of the end and an opportunity for the sector to grasp and use to find a better way to do business and remove the frictions associated with the dash for cash and behaviours that have undermined relationships and constrained opportunity to evolve.  I’d like to thank colleagues from within the Department and across the sector who have tirelessly championed better and brought us to this moment”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy – run by people who take risks, create jobs and keep communities going. This government is firmly on their side.

Too many small business owners are spending hours chasing money they are owed and when payments don’t come through, the cost is personal. It’s about whether you can pay your staff, keep the lights on, or invest in your future.

Today we’re changing that with the toughest action on late payments in a generation, so small businesses get paid on time and get the backing they need to grow, create jobs and serve their communities.”

Reforms include a clear 60-day cap on payment terms on all large firms paying smaller suppliers, mandatory interest on late payments, set at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, and a ban on the practice of withholding retention payments under construction contracts.

On top of this, the Small Business Commissioner is getting major new powers to investigate poor payment practices,  adjudicate disputes, and fine the worst offenders – with potential fines that could be worth tens of millions for persistently late payers.

The Office of the Small Business Commissioner has already recovered more money for small firms in the last year than in the previous four years combined.

By improving cashflow through supply chains, the Bill supports productivity, growth and keeps our small businesses afloat, by giving them the certainty they need to invest and grow.

Vitally too for construction, the Bill starts to set down how abolition of retention will be enacted.  

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said:

Costing the UK economy £11 billion every single year, late payments choke growth, cost jobs, and force too many good businesses to close. That ends today.

Through this landmark bill we are delivering the toughest payment reforms in over a generation, to give the UK the strongest legal framework in the G7, and back small businesses with the certainty they need to grow and thrive.

The Bill builds upon and strengthens legislation first laid out in the 1998 Late Payment of Commercial Debt Act, over 25 years ago, to give us the strongest legal framework on late payments in the G7.  It will also require changes to the

Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (commonly referred to as the Construction Act. 

To find out more about the  Small Business Protections Bill Click Here. 

The Bill is due to be introduced in the House of Lords on Tuesday 19 May.

The latest Skills Board meeting focused on major developments at Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) around construction workforce reform, youth employment support and industry training investment. Members discussed DWP’s £1.5 billion Youth Guarantee programme, which aims to help 16–24-year-olds access education, training and employment opportunities over the next three years. Key measures include expanded Youth Hubs, increased work experience and sector based placements, additional apprenticeship support for SMEs and the introduction of foundation apprenticeships combining paid work with structured learning. Discussions also explored proposals for guaranteed paid work placements for long-term unemployed young people and the importance of sector specific training pathways to improve work readiness before entering construction roles. 

The meeting also covered ongoing reform across the construction skills system, including discussions around the proposed merger of CITB and ECITB to form a single industry training board and the potential opportunities and risks associated with greater alignment across the sector. Members highlighted possible benefits such as reducing duplication and increasing levy funding available for training and grants, while also raising questions around future governance and long term delivery.

Updates were also provided on a number of training and workforce initiatives, including new pilot programmes for Steel Framed Systems training, Apprenticeship and qualification reviews, expanded E Learning provision and specialist workforce upskilling support for fit out, drylining and plastering. Wider discussions focused on improving regional training access, strengthening employer confidence to invest in skills and exploring the future development of digital skills passport systems to support workforce planning across construction. 

Full details of the meeting can be found here 

If members are interested on joining the FIS Skills Board, please contact Marie Flinter (marieflinter@thefis.org) or Beena Nana (beenanana@thefis.org)

FIS has prepared a draft response to the HSE consultation on proposed changes to RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations). 

This follows detailed discussion through our Health & Safety Working Group, with a focus on ensuring the proposals are clear, proportionate and practical for the finishes and interiors sector—particularly in relation to occupational diseases, dangerous occurrences and reporting requirements.

The consultation is driven by HSE’s aim to modernise RIDDOR so that reporting better reflects today’s working environment, improves data quality, and supports more targeted regulatory intervention. Key themes include expanding the scope of occupational diseases, clarifying definitions such as “work-related,” updating dangerous occurrences, and simplifying the reporting process. FIS’s draft response supports the overall direction of improving clarity and usability but emphasises the need for proportionate, practical requirements that work in a multi-contractor environment. In particular, our response highlights the importance of avoiding unintended increases in reporting burden, ensuring clear guidance to prevent inconsistent interpretation, and focusing on measures that genuinely improve safety outcomes rather than simply increasing reportable incidents.

We want your input before submission

Before we finalise our response, we are seeking member feedback to ensure it fully reflects real-world experience across the sector.

We are particularly interested in your views on:

• Whether the proposals will improve clarity or create ambiguity
• Potential unintended consequences (e.g. increased reporting burden)
• Practical challenges with current RIDDOR reporting
• Any issues we may have missed

Deadline: 5 June

Please send any comments or suggested additions to iainmcilwee@thefis.org by Wednesday 5 June.

Your feedback will help shape the final FIS submission and strengthen the sector’s voice with HSE.

FIS draft response available here….

For more information on the FIS H&S Working Group click here

FIS has refreshed its Specifiers’ Guide to Partitioning to reflect the most up-to-date advice and guidance, to support specification writers in fully understanding the key criteria involved when preparing partitioning specifications, including those for movable walls and pods.

The Specifiers’ Guide to Partitioning was first written in 2022 by the FIS Partitioning and Pods Working Group which comprises representation from manufacturers, designers and contractors working in the sector. Pulling together decades of experience, this guide is designed to help specifiers and designers understand the questions that should be addressed before the specification can be produced and then how the specification should be structured, and which standards referenced.

The 2026 update includes a significant expansion of guidance on pre-cycle agreements, reuse considerations, and end-of-service-life planning. It also reflects recent and forthcoming changes to fire resistance and reaction-to-fire classification systems, alongside updates to UK and EU conformity marking requirements. In addition, all references have been revised to align with current BS/EN standards and established industry best practice.

In addition to the written update, the guidance has been developed into a CPD e-learning course available via the FIS Academy. This digital format allows individuals to work through the content at their own pace in a structured, interactive way, reinforcing key principles and making complex technical requirements easier to understand.

Commenting on the guide, Chair of the FIS Partitions and Pods Working Group and FIS member Peter Long said:

“Partition systems of all types are always interfaced with adjacent construction products and many of these are critical interfaces, particularly in safety-critical applications like fire resistance and resistance to collapse under loading. This requires building design and the specification of construction products, like partitioning, to be considered holistically and not in isolation. This Specifiers’ Guide aims to support specifiers in this holistic approach.”

The guide explains the vast range of product options and how careful specification can help with relocatability in the building as well as enjoying enhanced tax benefits. The guide also has reference material to regulations for safety, fire performance and standards.

This Specifiers Guide sits alongside other FIS guidance that relates to partitioning:

Best practice guide for installing Partitioning

FIS Acoustic Verification Scheme

Servicing Operable Walls

These guides work well when they are included in proposals and project plans to demonstrate how to best approach a project. They are also good differentiators when someone is in competition with non-members, and are an excellent introduction to new members of the team and any trainees and apprentices.

You can download the Specifiers’ Guide to Partitioning from the Publications Library on the FIS website here.

See more news likes this

The Industry Task and Finish Group (ITFG) has today published its guidance on Managing Competence in the Built Environment: An industry guide on how to meet the ICC principles, providing practical, proportionate and risk-based support for organisations operating across the built environment.

The ITFG is an industry‑led, time‑limited group formed in June 2025 in response to the new Building Safety Regime’s requirement to manage competence in organisations. It brings together more than 50 professional bodies, industry organisations, regulators and assurance bodies, with the shared aim of translating high‑level principles for managing competence in the built environment into a practical day‑to‑day application that is recognised across the sector and helps drive up competence and building safety outcomes.

The guidance sets out what effective organisational competence management looks like in practice for organisations of all sizes and risk profiles, SMEs, micro-businesses and large organisations alike, enabling them to demonstrate that people working for them, or on their behalf, are competent for the work they undertake.

Its flexible and proportionate approach means that the guidance can be used alongside existing management systems, or as a foundation where no formal approach is yet in place. Although prompted to meet competence management requirements set by building safety reforms, it can be used more widely across the built environment.

The guidance has been developed alongside, and is fully aligned with, the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) publication Setting Expectations on Competence Management. Used together, the ICC advice sets out what good looks like at a high level, while the ITFG guidance explains how organisations can put those principles into practice.

The guidance looks at the role of organisational leadership and governance, while emphasising that actively managing competence is not simply about qualifications or training records; it is about ensuring that organisations have enough people with the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for their role.

Using the principles set out in the ICC document, the ITFG guidance sets out the key elements organisations, SME’s and large organisations alike, should think about when putting effective competence management in place, defining what competence is needed for different roles and activities, assessing and verifying competence, and making sure competence is monitored and maintained over time.

Sofie Hooper, Chair of the ITFG comments:

“With competence being a critical determinant of health and safety, building safety and quality outcomes, the management of competence by organisations is not only a requirement for building safety, but it actively underpins the safety, performance and reliability of structures through the built environment.

“This important document will provide much needed guidance across the sector on how to manage competence well and it could not have been done without the cross sector support and the dedication of the experts in the Steering Group. We would also like to thank the ICC for the collaboration so that we could align our guidance- making a difference together.”

The guidance will next play a key role in shaping the development of a future British Standard on managing competence in organisations.

Available from supporting organisations’ websites, the ITFG and ICC documents are both also available from the BSI Competence hub, where organisations using the guidance can share their feedback and practical experience of the guidance. The ITFG will next be developing case studies and encourages organisations wanting to contribute to get in touch with Sofie.Hooper@aps.org.uk.