Building Standards Futures Board

Overview

The Building Standards Futures Board was set up at the beginning of 2019 to provide guidance and direction on the development and implementation of recommendations made by the Review Panels on Compliance and Enforcement and Fire Safety. The Review Panels were formed by the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety following failings in the construction of Edinburgh School Buildings and the fire at Grenfell Tower, London.

Remit

The Board’s remit is to strategically advise and direct a broad programme of work aimed at improving the performance, expertise, resilience and sustainability of the Scottish building standards framework and services across Scotland.

The Board is chaired by Ken Gourlay. Ken is Chief Executive of Fife Council.

Work streams are being taken forward by Building Standards Division, Scottish Government, involving a range of stakeholders from construction industry organisations, professional and public bodies including Scottish Futures Trust, Skills Development Scotland, Universities and local authorities (through Local Authority Building Standards Scotland - LABSS).

The seven work streams agreed in 2019 are:

• verification delivery model
• compliance plan approach
• digital transformation
• certification strategy
• workforce strategy
• technical strategy
• verification standards

Progress and change are happening across all workstreams. From 2024 delivery will focus on four workstreams:

• compliance plan approach
• verification delivery model (incorporating verification standards)
• certification strategy
• digital transformation

Related groups

• Building and Fire Safety: Ministerial Working Group

Members

• Ken Gourlay, Chief Executive, Fife Council
• Dave Aitken, Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS)
• John-Paul Breslin, Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS)
• Steve Fawcett, Homes for Scotland
• Robert Toomey, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveys (RICS)
• Ron Fraser, Construction Scotland
• Robert Nicol, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)   
• Colin Proctor, Scottish Futures Trust (SFT)
• Jocelyne Fleming, Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
• Fiona MacDonald, Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST)
• Gordon Nelson, Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
• Zoe Black, Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS)
• Mark Lawler, Certification Scheme Providers
• Scottish Government officials

Publications