Building Standards in Scotland
The present system of Building Standards in Scotland was established in May 2005 on the introduction of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003. It is the Act which gives the Scottish Government the powers to make building regulations and other supporting legislation such as procedure regulations and fees regulations.
The purpose of the Building Standards system in Scotland is in practice twofold:
There is an enforcement role which by statute falls on the local authority. This relates to building work carried out without approval and secondly to buildings which are deemed to be either defective or dangerous, to the extent that they pose a risk to the safety of the occupants or to the public in general.
There is a second role which, through the application of the Scottish technical standards, seeks to ensure that building work meets reasonable standards. The standards are set out in the building regulations which are intended to:
This is no longer a statutory local authority function; it is the role of “Verifiers” who are appointed by the Scottish Government. At present the only Verifiers are the 32 local authorities who are appointed for their own geographical area but this is open to review.
It is important for those who operate nationally across the UK or those coming to operate or live in Scotland for the first time to understand that the Scottish Building Standards system and the associated regulations differ from England & Wales, and indeed in Northern Ireland.
It is equally important to emphasise that it is not the purpose of the building standards system to supervise work on site. Verifiers will undertake only a limited number of site checks so Building Standards does not control building but does seek to set out minimum standards to be met when work does take place.
The local authority website for the area where you are to undertake work will provide you with full details of the building warrant process and the timescales involved together with details of the other functions they provide. In addition to the enforcement roles mentioned above, this can include