§ Baroness Nicolasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they are taking to promote common standards across the public and private sectors of building control. [HL3132]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Baroness Hayman)In March we welcomed the establishment by the Construction Industry Council, the Local Government Association and the Association of Corporate Approved Inspectors of a steering group to draw up recommended standards and monitoring arrangements for building control.
The steering group has had two preliminary meetings, and has adopted the following terms of reference which we are happy to endorse:
"To help achieve compliance with the regulations of the work supervised, the steering groups shall:
- 1. draw up proposals for a common Building Control Performance Standard for compliance
WA 190 with the requirements of the Building Regulations; - 2. draw up proposals for monitoring the compliance of both local authorities and approved inspectors with the Building Control Performance Standard;
- 3. draw up proposals and a timescale for implementing (1) and (2);
- 4. consider other relevant issues; and
- 5. submit proposals to the DETR for approval".
The steering group has set itself the target of submitting a report to us by the end of the year.