Building standards - Early Adopters Scheme: compliance handbook

1. Introduction

The new Compliance Plan (CP) approach has been developed in response to the recommendations made by the 2018 Review Panel on Building Standards Compliance and Enforcement. The Review Panel was formed by the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety set up following failings in the construction of Edinburgh school buildings and the fire at Grenfell Tower, London. The Review Panel identified that the building standards system in Scotland was not broken but needed to be strengthened, including compliance.

The new CP approach is designed to:

• minimise the risk of completed buildings failing to comply with the building regulations and the building warrant approved plans and details
• increase compliance with building warrant process legislative requirements (procedural compliance) to support the delivery of safe compliant buildings and the legal use/occupation of buildings
• support the relevant person (normally the building owner/developer) to control the work on site to build in accordance with the approved building warrant plans and the building regulations, to deliver a compliant building and be able to evidence this, and
• ensure the planned verification inspections, checks and evidence within the approved building warrant CP are fully achieved.

This first edition of the Compliance Handbook details the CP approach and provides guidance for use by Early Adopters (EA) who choose to apply and benefit from the CP approach in building warrant applications before there is a legal requirement to do so.

This EA guidance and Scheme supports the further development of a nationally consistent approach to the delivery of building regulation compliant buildings. This is a voluntary scheme which all parties must agree to be part of.