The time is now for reserved activities, and RIBA is leading the charge

Wheels are turning in government, with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHCLG) working to implement the recommendations of the second Grenfell report to improve consumer safety in the built environment. Late last year, it issued the Single Construction Regulator Prospectus consultation and now it has issued a further call for evidence on the matter.

In prospect is a single regulator across products, regulations, relevant professions and constructors – and reserved activities for relevant critical roles within the industry.

At RIBA, we are heavily engaged in discussions on these matters with both our fellow professionals and MHCLG itself. Our Repeal, Reserve, Regulate campaign sets out our position which, if successful, will deliver a huge benefit to consumer safety and a vastly improved business model for architects. MHCLG appears to look favourably on the latter as well as the former outcome.

To recap, the “regulate” part of our campaign proposes a built environment council (BEC) as the single regulatory oversight body, sitting above the professional chartered bodies who would agree standards with the BEC, ensuring standardisation but vitally control their own profession – something that architects do not have at present.

To achieve this, new legislation would need to be introduced. Modelled on the structure and principles of the Legal Services Act, we are calling our proposed legislation the Built Environment Services Bill (the bill).

The bill would be guided by core objectives to ensure the built environment serves the public interest, these include:

• Protecting public safety, including fire safety and structural integrity of buildings.
• Ensuring high-quality homes and places, including delivering low carbon developments and enhancing design and construction quality.
• Improving consumer protection for homeowners and developers.
• Supporting professional principles, such as independence, integrity and high standards of work.
• Promoting competition and innovation in design and construction services.

The bill would then define specific activities, that are crucial to delivering a high-quality and safe built environment, that only authorised persons can perform.

An authorised person is defined as a professional who is a member of an approved charter body, and that charter body has ratified that the individual meets the standards and criteria required to perform the reserved activities.

Those who are not listed in the bill as authorised persons would be known as unqualified persons.

The reserved activities we have identified include the current Building Regulations Principal Designer role and the submission of the following statutory documents:

• Outline planning applications
• Reserved matters applications
• Full planning applications
• Fire safety strategies, within building regulations applications
• Structural design and certification, within building regulations applications and final certificates
• Building services design and certification, within building regulations applications and final certificates
• Building regulations applications and final certificates

We propose that these reserved activities are not only for higher-risk buildings – residential buildings over 18m like the Grenfell Tower – but for all buildings above small-scale domestic projects.

We are specifically including planning applications within our list of reserved activities to widen the scope of protection from safety to include the quality of our built environment. It is just as unsatisfactory, at the moment, that those untrained in design can shape our built environment as it is that unqualified people can submit building regulations applications.

Clearly defined reserved activities would help to deliver public protection by ensuring that those responsible for the critical decisions in delivering buildings have the specific and assessed skills and competencies required for the task.

The introduction of reserved activities would mean there is no ambiguity about who is responsible for what work

It would also provide a high level of accountability and help to assure safety if applied to all significant building work. The introduction of reserved activities would mean there is no ambiguity about who is responsible for what work.

Most of the professions covered by the Legal Services Act (barristers and solicitors, for example) have both protected functions (reserved activities) and protection of title. This should be replicated across the built environment sector. This, in addition to reserved activities, would provide the maximum protection for the consumer.

The bill would also set out how the public can seek redress if things go wrong. The professional charter bodies already have rigorous complaints procedures with appeal processes. In our proposed system, this would remain in place but the outcome of all appeals would be reported to the BEC, who would have the power to investigate or audit the chartered bodies procedures if necessary.

If we can achieve these outcomes, which are fully in line with the second Grenfell report’s recommendations, we will achieve a quantum leap in safety standards, rationalise the regulation of the construction industry, put architects back in control of their own profession and help to grow the architecture sector.