Third party testing could be subject to audits
The government has published its plans to address gaps in the construction products regime.
Proposals set out today as part of the government’s wider response to the Grenfell Inquiry report include new requirements for previously unregulated products, as well as measures to ensure greater transparency and oversight of testing.
In her foreword to the green paper, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said the inquiry’s report had “revealed a building system that put profit before people, with devastating consequences”.
She said changes since 2017 meant buildings designed today were “demonstrably safer than they were” but that the job was “far from done”.
“We must reform the way the manufacturing, marketing, sale and use of construction products is regulated,” she said.
“This part of the regulatory regime has been almost untouched and fixing that is central to the Inquiry response that we publish today.”
Under the proposals, products not currently covered by a designated standard or subject to a technical assessment would have a risk-based general safety requirement applied, as recommended by the Morrell-Day review.
“This would require the economic operator to understand, and take proportionate action to eliminate or control, any safety risk connected to the intended use and the normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use of their construction product before it is supplied or placed on the market,” said the green paper.
The new national regulator, also announced today, would provide guidance setting out the principles against which the assessment of safety risks would be conducted.
Manufacturers would also be required to provide clear information about the intended use of a product, the risks associated, and necessary installation advice, as well as labelling them with trademarks and company details to enable traceability.
Meanwhile, the government is proposing to apply additional measures to products classified as critical to safe construction, including that all such products be covered by a national or recognised standard and requirements to support safe installation.
The government also accepted the recommendation of the Morrell-Day review [the independent review of the construction product regime by former construction tsar Paul Morrell and KC Anneliese Day which was published in April 2023] that the focus should not be on “safety-critical products” in the abstract, but rather on “products critical to safe construction”, defining products in this category as “those where there is a risk of serious harm if something goes wrong”.
Determining which products or systems fall under this category would fall to the national regulator under the proposals.
The Morrell-Day review also noted that the safety of products depends on how it is put together with installation and the green paper is seeking views on requirements that products must be subject either to approved installer schemes or prescribed competency requirements, as well as duties on supervisors to oversee installation on site and to undertake quality control of installation.
As well as requirements for construction products to feature “clear, accessible labelling”, understandable to a wide range of users and which outlines critical safety information, the government also proposes to establish a library for construction products.
This would serve as a central repository for vital information such as test results, certificates of compliance and relevant academic research.
It also proposes greater rigour for third party testing and certification, which could include regular audits and inspections by the national regulator as well as mechanisms for whistleblowers.
However, the government stopped short of nationalising the testing regime, as had been suggested in the Grenfell Phase Two report.
“In considering reforms, we need to ensure we do not introduce conflicts of interest of a different nature if one body were to undertake both the issuing of conformity assessment certificates and regulation of that,” the government said
The green paper identified five sector groups as being “critical to delivering the ambition for reform” with their views likely to be key to the development of the proposals.
The first of these are named as the construction product manufacturers, the construction industry and its supply chains and the government itself.
Beyond these, the white paper listed the UK’s National Quality Infrastructure – which includes the British Standards Institution, the United Kingdom Accreditation Service and conformity assessment bodies – and regulators including the National Regulator for Construction Products, Local Authority Trading Standards and the Building Safety Regulator.
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