APS has increased its sector-wide engagement to better support members in developing and maintaining professional competence. Each week, we’ll share an update from APS HQ so you can see the breadth of work being carried out for your benefit.

What’s been happening?

• ICSG Principal Designer Working Group – the Industry Competence Steering Group brought together a range of industry stakeholders to discuss how the duty holding role of the Principal Designer under the Building Regulations (England) is understood and implemented. Their recent survey demonstrated how there is a lack of consensus on the role across the sector. The survey insights are now used to develop a paper for the Regulator and other Government audiences, including the devolved nations, to work towards a consensus understanding and implementation of the role so that building safety outcomes are achieved.

• ITFG Steering Group – the Industry Task and Finish Group is a pan sector group chaired by APS to deliver a guidance document on the management of competence in organisations to align with the work of the Industry Competence Committee who are due to publish guidance document “setting Expectations for competence management” soon. The ITFG Steering Group, who are the experts supporting the drafting of the document, met to sign off on the document, which is now being put forward to the whole ITFG group on 30 April. The ITFG document is due to be published on the BSI Competence hub in the near future.

• APS participated in the CIC Professional Competence Taskforce, where we are working together towards feeding into the Government’s anticipated call for evidence on the Regulation of Professions. The Taskforce is the overarching group, while two separate working groups have been set up that Andrew Leslie and Sofie Hooper participate in, the Governance and competence working groups respectively.

Recent updates members should know about

BSR (England) webinar – Managing Competence in the Built Environment

APS recently joined the BSR for their webinar on Managing Competence in the Built Environment, in our capacity as Chair of the ITFG. During the webinar the ICC presented their work in this area, and the ITFG outlined how its work provides practical guidance on how to implement the ICC principles.

Key discussion points during the webinar were:

• What your legal duties are to manage the competence of those working in your organisation, particularly those working on building projects

• The principles you should follow to meet those duties

• Practical advice on the policies, systems and procedures that will help you do this

You can watch the webinar here.

PAS 1958: 2026 published – a free standard outlining the data and information landscape in the built environment

PAS 1958:2026 – Built Environment - Data and Information Standards Landscape, has now been published by the BSI.

This guide aims at bringing together the large number of data/information management standards into one overall framework to start to work towards a connected bigger picture.

It is principally aimed at helping those managing asset related information understand which standards are relevant, putting information first in relation to how it flows and how it is structured. Information management is key for anyone from design through to management. Over the next year, APS will be looking at how we can better support our members with their information management related competence.

The PAS can be downloaded for free from here.

What’s coming up this week? (20-27 April)

Meetings APS is involved in this week include:

• APS meeting CIAT on regulation of professions

• CIC Governance task & finish group (3rd Meeting)

• CIC Finance & Governance Committee

• APS meeting with NIMA

We’ll continue to keep members updated on key developments and engagement across the industry as plans for 2026 take shape.

If you would like to contribute or share expertise on issues that matter to you, please contact APS HQ at info@aps.org.uk.