Building safety: consultation on the overarching framework for industry competence

News

BSI has launched the consultation on the first iteration of ‘Built environment – overarching framework for competence of individuals’. The framework, sponsored by MHCLG, covers the core skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required for professionals and trades to work on buildings in scope of the new building safety regime, for which the draft Building Safety Bill was published in July.

This draft standard marks the first phase of the MHCLG-sponsored BSI work on developing competence standards for the new building safety regime. The second phase will be marked by the development of three standards covering the competence requirements for the Principal Designers (PD), Principal Contractors (PC) and Building Safety Manager (BSM). The latter will see the translation of the WG8 work that IWFM has been part of, with the output being the BSM Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) by March 2022.

It is expected that statutory guidance following the forthcoming Building Safety Bill will make references to these standards to help dutyholders meet their legal duties. This means that BSMs will need to demonstrate compliance with the future BSM PAS before they can be appointed as a BSM.

The overarching framework, once published as a BS Flex (expected March 2021), can also be used to develop sector-specific competence frameworks for wider relevant trades and professions.

You can find and comment on the draft standard at https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/9020-04664. The deadline for comments is 20 October 2020. The document is also available as a pdf on the programme website.

Wider information about what the new regime means for workplace and facilities management professionals can be found here:

Building safety: Government publishes draft ‘game changing’ legislation

Building safety: call for evidence on draft bill; IWFM CEO discusses implications for FMs