Building Standards

  • Improved fire safety for new flats and social homes – Dissemination Events

    20th January 2021 by

    Changes to sprinkler regulations Work on fire safety, including greater provision of automatic fire suppression systems, has been taken forward as part of the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety, formed following the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017. An important part of this work was to increase the provision of automatic fire…

    Read more

  • Introducing the Competency Assessment System

    17th December 2020 by

    A guest post by Bob Renton, Consultant to Local Authority Building Standards Scotland, about the development of the Competency Assessment System and plans for implementation next year. The Competency Assessment System, or CAS for short, has been developed over the last couple of years by Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) with involvement from many…

    Read more

  • Certification

    4th December 2020 by

     Blog by William Hamilton –  Certification Officer The use of certifiers of design and construction have become commonplace as part of the building standards system.  However, the reports carried out after the Edinburgh Schools Inquiry and Grenfell Tower Tragedy have highlighted that an increase in the scope of  certification could help to improve the construction…

    Read more

  • Building Standards Workforce Strategy Blog – September 2020

    11th September 2020 by

    blog by Gordon Gilchrist Leading up to March this year, Building Standards Division was full steam ahead with preparations to launch the workforce strategy.  So much work was in place to make sure the strategy would be ready for its planned launch at the end of May.  Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic we had…

    Read more

  • The advantages of certification during the COVID-19 recovery period

    23rd July 2020 by

    A guest post from SELECT and Stirling Electrical Services Ltd As an Approved Certifier for 15 years, Scott McLean knows the many advantages of certification – and is now seeing first-hand how it’s helping the construction industry recover from COVID-19 too. The experienced electrician believes the scheme has brought its own unique benefits during the…

    Read more

  • Building Resilience to Flooding

    3rd March 2020 by

    A blog by Thomas Lennon Following storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge no one can be in any doubt that the flooding of our towns, cities and properties is on the increase. Flooding cannot be prevented, it is estimated that in Scotland 284,00 homes and properties are at risk of flooding. Around 229,000 of these properties…

    Read more

  • House Builders Survey

    18th February 2020 by

    A blog by Eilidh MacPherson Building Standards Division (BSD) is currently undertaking a research project around compliance of Section 6 Energy, of the Technical Handbook, focusing on the building fabric performance.   In 2019, The First Minister declared a global climate emergency and there are increased demands to rapidly reduce carbon emissions across all sectors…

    Read more

  • Changing Places Toilets

    21st November 2019 by

    Post by Thomson Dyer of Building Standards Division A toilet is not just a toilet. It’s a life-saver, dignity-protector and opportunity-maker. Whoever you are, wherever you are, access to sanitation is a basic human right. However for many people in Scotland with complex care needs, access to this most basic human right is not as…

    Read more

  • Working with our European partners

    19th November 2019 by

      A post from Ken Craig in the Procedures and Verification Team I attended the two day Consortium of European Building Control (CEBC) conference in Brussels on 14 and 15 October 2019. This was a landmark event as it was the Consortium’s 60th business meeting.  CEBC consists of member organisations both public and private sectors…

    Read more

  • Fire Safety Standards – latest changes

    1st November 2019 by

    As a result of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017 reviews of fire safety measures affecting multi storey buildings was undertaken. The Building Standards Division have played a significant part in this process implementing new measures designed to increase safety for building occupants and assist the fire and rescue services when implementing…

    Read more