ICE in building control quality push

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has published new guidance for engineers in the construction industry to help raise the standard of building control approval submissions under Part A of the Building Regulations, and their equivalents in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

The guidance follows an investigation by ICE’s Structures Expert Panel, the Standing Committee on Structural Safety, and the Association of Structural Engineers of London Boroughs into the standard of approval submissions to building control authorities. The groups collectively found many building control approval submissions made to English local authorities for construction and extension projects often were sub-standard, and identified the need for best practice to be shared.

The ICE hopes that its new guidance will improve the design assumptions within applications, ensure all vital data about projects is included, avoid errors and ultimately help to mitigate safety risks.

Additionally, the revised Construction (Design and Management) regulations that came into force in April this year reinforce the need for designers to ensure clarity and accuracy in their work, as means of mitigating risk, the ICE said.

John Carpenter, ICE Structures Expert Panel member and co-author of the guide, said: “The structural engineer has a professional and moral duty to provide building control authorities with clear and sufficient information about the design of their proposed projects. After all, the assumption behind all structural codes is that they are only used by competent persons.

“The building regulations approval process should be as simple and open as possible and consistent with safeguarding the health and safety of those in and around buildings.

“The approval process must therefore recognise that structural engineering is safety-critical, that only competent structural engineers should derive submissions, and that they are presented in a complete and clear manner. Building control authorities must be ready to reject any submissions that do not meet these criteria.”

Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk