The Building Safety Act 2022 is the most significant reform of design, construction and management of buildings regulation in decades. Over the last two years the Institution has produced guidance to ensure our members and the wider profession are aware of how the legislation will impact the work of structural engineers.
Go to the Building Safety Act section
The Act provides clearer accountability and enhanced duties for those responsible for the safety of high-risk buildings, with clear competence requirements to ensure high standards are maintained. However, what are those competence requirements and how will Institution members demonstrate that they have met the requirements?
The Engineering Council, in association with the Institution and other professional engineering bodies, has developed a competence framework for those working on higher-risk buildings. The standard, referred to as UK-SPEC HRB, sets out the competences and commitments expected of engineers and technicians working on these structures.
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The standard is generic in that it can be applied across the built environment professions. However additional annexes have been drafted to cover structural, fire and building services engineering. Engineers who wish to demonstrate their competence may apply to selected institutions for assessment (in the form of a Professional Review Interview) and if successful they will be eligible to be admitted to the HRB Register.
The Institution of Structural Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers are developing a joint registration process to enable members of both institutions to be assessed against the structural engineering contextualised standard. The assessment and registration processes are being finalised and will be submitted shortly to the Engineering Council. The discipline specific annexes will be published by the end of the year and plans are being developed to launch the assessment and registration process in Q2 of 2024.
Further information on the contextualised standard and content to support members in demonstrating competence will be published in due course.