Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 21 September 2016
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce legislation that would allow builders who carry out substandard work and cause properties to become dangerous to be charged with a criminal offence.
The Scottish Government has no such plans currently for further legislation. Under building standards legislation, constructors and building owners have statutory responsibility for works carried out to buildings. A person carrying out work without a building warrant where a warrant should have been obtained, or a person not building in accordance with a building warrant, is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £5,000 (level 5 on the standard scale).