Verifier peer group reviews consortium agreement

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Under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, local authorities were allowed to verify their own work, this is work that requires a building warrant where the local authority either owned or occupied the building. This permission in the form of a direction expired on 30 April 2008 and the Scottish Ministers decided that this exemption should not be extended.

The Minister for transport, infrastructure and climate change stressed that the decision to remove from local authorities the ability to self-verify was to ensure that there should always be third-party checking of all building warrants and completion certificate submissions. The minister also recognised the concerns of a number of authorities on any possible increase in administrative burden and accepted that it would be advisable to find the simplest way of achieving independent checking.

As a means of ensuring this third party checking the Scottish Government Building Standards Division in association with the Scottish Association of Building Standards Managers (SABSM) have developed a mechanism of independent review that satisfies Scottish Ministers, based on peer group review within regional consortia of processes for dealing with buildings in which local authorities have an interest. The Minister has indicated that he is content that such peer reviews will satisfy the need for third-party checking and the direction, therefore, will be extended until 30 April 2011 for authorities that participate.

Renfrewshire Council Building Standards have formed a consortium of local authorities for this purpose and signed a 'consortium agreement' with the following local authorities:

• Argyll and Bute Council
• City of Glasgow Council
• East Dunbartonshire Council
• East Renfrewshire Council
• Inverclyde Council
• Renfrewshire Council
• West Dunbartonshire Council

For more information:

• email: bc@renfrewshire.gov.uk
• call: 0141 842 5878
• write to: Planning and Transport
  Renfrewshire House
  Cotton Street
  Paisley
  PA1 1LL