Built Environment Competence Standards

In June 2017, the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower led to a wholesale review of building safety and regulations in the UK.

Led by Dame Judith Hackitt, the review highlighted a fragmented approach to – and a lack of consistency in – the processes and standards for assuring the competence of those working on buildings as a major flaw in the current regulatory system.

To meet that challenge and take forward the report’s recommendations, the Competence Steering Group (CSG) was created in August 2018.  

In August 2019 the CSG published its report, Raising the Bar. It included 67 recommendations including creating a suite of national standards and supporting documents.

BSI is building a framework of documents which will raise the standards of competence across the built environment.

The industry-led programme sponsored by MHCLG will deliver:

• an overarching competence framework standard for everyone working on a building. This is intended to be used by key professions and trades including designers, contractors, fire risk assessors, building managers and others in specialist technical or corporate roles. The framework will provide a set of core principles of competence, including leading and managing safety, communicating safety, delivering safety, risk management, regulations & processes, building systems, ethics, and fire/life safety. The competence framework is being developed using an iterative and dynamic process, in line with our new flexible route to standardization, called BSI Flex.

• a set of competence requirements for the three newly-regulated roles: Principal Designer, Principal Contractor and Building Safety Manager.

There are many benefits to developing these standards.

Crucially, they will help to improve building safety. In this case, that means primarily the safety of residents but also of the workforce, including emergency responders.

The standards will make it easier for different parts of the built environment industry to work together by establishing agreed core principles, terminology, and requirements on competence. This will provide a shared understanding of roles along the delivery supply chain.

The impact goes further, the standards will provide a bridge to wider competence requirements being developed for the professional, technical and artisanal skills of those working in the built environment, raising the quality of work, the behaviour and the culture of individuals working in the built environment.