Question reference: S6W-01527
- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 19 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-35383 by Kevin Stewart on 1 March 2021, whether changes have been made to the building standards verifier requirements regarding BS 8414 and BR 135 and, if so, when the decisions related to any changes were (a) taken and (b) implemented.
Answer
A public consultation exercise, Building standards (fire safety) - a consultation on external wall systems - Scottish Government - Citizen Space , is currently being undertaken which includes options on the role of BS 8414 (and associated BR 135).
Responses to the consultation will be used to inform the Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review Panel 2020-21 work and final policy that will be prepared in support of any legislative changes. Any legislative changes may have an effect on ‘building standards verifier requirements’. The consultation closes in October 2021.
As an interim measure, the Scottish Government Building Standards Division have requested notification from local authority verifiers under S34 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 where BS 8414 / BR 135 and BS 9414 extended field of application assessments have been used to demonstrate compliance with the mandatory building standards. These interim measure decisions to remove reference to BS 8414 and BR 135 were taken and implemented, respectively, as follows:
(a) March 2021
(b) March/ April 2021
Additionally, pending the outcome of the review, advice on avoiding the use of MCM (category 3) was introduced into Section 2 (fire) of the Technical Handbooks in April 2021 .