Building Standards

Scottish Building Standards Hub

March 8, 2024 by Simon Moore No Comments | Category Building Standards, Futures Board

As part of the Future Board Programme to strengthen the building standards system in Scotland, the Scottish Government, in partnership with LABSS and Fife Council, will be launching Scottish Building Standards Hub from May 2024 following a successful two year pilot phase (Hub Pilot).

Hub Pilot

The two year Hub Pilot was recommended by the Delivery Model Working Group following the expert review panels of Fire Safety and Compliance and Enforcement to consider the potential for a “national or central hub”.

The Hub Pilot was launched in May 2022 and will transition from a pilot to a permanent Hub from the end of May 2024.

The Hub Pilot’s remit was to investigate the potential for improving access to specialist services and deliver and develop some of the recognised building standards system services delivery by LABSS. The Pilot has been hosted by Fife Council.

Permanent Building Standards Hub

A Strategic Business Case for the permanent Building Standards Hub was approved by the Futures Board in August 2023, and subsequently approved by Scottish Government Ministers in December 2023.

Recognising broad agreement that the Hub would be best based within a local authority to support and work with building standards teams to improve and deliver the building standards system, Fife Council were formally invited to host the permanent Hub from May 2024 onwards, and on the 11 January 2024, Fife Council Cabinet approved this request.

The aim of the Scottish Building Standards Hub is to strengthen the building standards system in Scotland by playing a key role in supporting the transformation and quality in building standards services and the delivery of compliant buildings through the building warrant process. The Hub will consist of a number of business units and employ a cohort of permanent staff to help it achieve this. These are: Business Unit, Operational Partnership Unit, Learning & Development Unit, Technical & Procedural Unit, STAS Unit & Digital Transformation Unit.

The objectives of the Hub are closely aligned to those of the Delivery Model Working Group:

• Increase consistency
• Increase capacity to deliver across all types of construction work
• Provide resilience
• Drive efficiencies
• Ensure investment in skills and new technology

The Hub is not part of the Scottish Government and will be overseen by an Advisory Board consisting of representatives from key stakeholders such as BSD, LABSS, CoSLA/SOLACE and industry representatives. The BSD role within the Board is to represent the views of Scottish Ministers and the Advisory Board will set the strategic direction of the Hub and ensure it achieves its objectives.

Funding the Hub is estimated to be £1.2 – £1.3 million per year and this will be provided through the planned increase in building warrant fees, which will also be used to support changes to strengthen the system being brought through the work of the Futures Board Programme.

The Hub will undertake a number of activities, but not limited to, below:

• Provide specialist expertise in fire and structural engineering
• Facilitate and support workload sharing between verifiers
• Arrange and deliver training to verifiers on new energy standards and other areas where appropriate
• Provide access to digital transformational support
• Undertake administration of STAS, dispute resolution and Information papers
• Maintain and develop a Learning Management System containing digitised training modules
• Develop a digital skills builder platform that will provide a Competency Assessment System (CAS) for verifiers
• Provide access to building & construction industry stakeholders for advice and information

The Hub will continue to develop where necessary to provide appropriate level of support to the building standards service in Scotland. Scottish Government officials will provide progress reports to Ministers on the development and progress of the Hub following its launch from May 2024.

If you would like further information on the implementation of the permanent Building Standards Hub, please contact us at BuildingStandards@gov.scot.

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