Building Control Professional registration deadline extended

Building control professionals play a vital part in ensuring the safety and quality of buildings by assessing plans, inspecting sites and advising about regulated functions. 

As part of the the Hackitt Report, and the independent review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety following Grenfell, it was noted that there was incoherence, confusion and complexity in the current building control system. As a result, the Building Safety Act 2022, and associated secondary legislation, implements reform to the building control profession. 

Inspectors are now to be overseen by the Building Safety Regulator ("BSR") and will be required to meet certain competency standards. As part of this process, inspectors are required to register to become Registered Building Control Approvers. The deadline for registration was 6 April 2024. 

However, there was great concern within the industry that a significant number of building control professionals would not be able to successfully register on time, despite working at full capacity to meet the cut off. Having too few inspectors would have a wide-ranging impact on the industry, consumers and regulatory compliance.

To support building control professionals, on 14 March 2024 the HSE's director, Philip White, published an open letter confirming that there would be an extension period of 13 weeks - moving the deadline to 6 July 2024.

Inspectors are still required to register with the BSR by 6 April 2024, but they now have until 6 July 2024 to evidence their competency. 

"Experienced building control professionals who are not trainees but have not yet completed a competence assessment will have the scope of their registration temporarily extended"

To qualify for the temporary extension, the building control professional must:

• Be an existing  building control professional;
• Register as a Class 1 Registered Building Inspector by 6 April 2024;
• Be enrolled in, and be in the process of having their competency assessed through a BSR approved scheme by 6 April 2024; and
• Not have been  told by a scheme provider that they have failed their competency assessment for a second time. 

Assuming the criteria are met, relevant  building control professionals may continue to undertake building control work for the relevant Class of Registered Building Inspector  for which they  are undertaking  their assessment.

If the competency assessment is  not passed by 6 July 2024, then all regulated building control activities must cease until properly registered. It has been  confirmed that there will be no further extensions, so urgency is still required and building control professionals are urged to register with the BSR and enrol in a competency scheme as soon as possible.

For more information, please contact a member of our Construction team.