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BSR confirms some inspectors will need to work under supervision after missing extended competency deadline
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has confirmed that some inspectors will have to work under supervision after missing the competence assessment extension period.
The period came to an end on 6 July and the BSR has taken the decision to allow “a limited cohort” of people to continue to work while waiting for their exam results.
Class two and three inspectors have been told that they will revert to a class one registered building inspector (RBI) and be allowed to work supervised.
The BSR explained that it “is aware that there have been concerns within the profession that there would still be insufficient numbers of class two and three registered building inspectors by the end of the extension period”.
At the time of the extension, the BSR pointed out that it gave a “very clear statement that there would be no further extension”.
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To address concerns of staff shortages raised by the industry, a competence assessment extension period of 13 weeks will be introduced from 6 April to 6 July this year to enable those who meet specific criteria to continue to operate.
During this period, the scope of their registration was temporarily extended, and they were allowed to undertake building control work for the class of RBI for which they are undertaking a competency assessment.
Those who meet the criteria but do not successfully complete a competency assessment and upgrade their registration class by 6 July were told they will not be able to continue to undertake regulated building control activities.
However, in an update this week the BSR said: “There is a limited cohort of people who had completed the competency assessment process by the 6 July, meaning they had sat an exam or attended an assessment interview, and are awaiting their results.
“We have taken the decision to allow that limited cohort of individuals to continue to undertake the restricted activities for which they have completed the assessment process.
“The qualifying individuals have been written to by BSR, via the scheme providers. Anyone who has not received a letter confirming they are in this limited cohort will revert to class one and must work under supervision.”
Local Authority Building Control has welcomed the decision. It comes after Inside Housing reported at the start of the month that applications for remediation work at the BSR had been delayed because of an IT error.
The error came to light after leaseholders at the Charterhouse Building in east London contacted Inside Housing after they were concerned about a delay to their application.
The development, which is a multi-block development with several buildings over 18 metres tall, features a mix of aluminium composite material (ACM) and non-ACM combustible cladding.
The managing agents had obtained government funding for the cladding remediation works to be carried out as soon as possible but work could not start because of the delay at the BSR in approving the works.
Inside Housing understands that the error has now been fixed but it is not clear how many applications have been delayed.
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