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.

We took a little break over August but are back on a weekly basis.

What’s been happening?

While August was mostly focused on finalising the Government’s Call for evidence on the Professions’ strategy, resulting in a comprehensive APS submission on 12^th August, September has been a busy month already with APS’s AGM and Conference having taken place last Wednesday, 9^th September.

• On 9 September, APS announced a change in leadership at APS, with Sofie Hooper being appointed the role of Chief Executive Officer.
  APS President Mark Snelling said:"The Board is delighted to appoint Sofie as Chief Executive Officer. She has already made a significant contribution to APS, helping to drive our strategic direction and strengthen relationships across industry, Government and the wider professional community. Her leadership, vision and understanding of the challenges facing the sector will be invaluable as APS continues to develop services, standards and support for members during a period of profound change in building safety and construction regulation."
  
  
• In August, aside from finalising the APS’s submission to the call for evidence, APS also met with Dr Bola Abisogun, who’s leading on Project IIRIS- an Information Management Initiative (IMI) technical project to help the insurance sector evaluate project risk using structured information. This project is of great relevance for APS as structured health and safety information plays a key role to define the Insurer Information Requirements.
  
  
• APS also met with Dame Judith Hackitt in August. This meeting had two objectives; to prepare for Dame Judith’s speech at APS conference, and to provide an update and overview of APS strategy and activity around the competence agenda as Dame Judith is also an Honorary APS Member.
  
  
• Last Thursday, APS attended a meeting of the Principal Designer Building Regulations working group within the Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG PD working group). This group brings together industry stakeholders to discuss the implementation of the PD BR role and its various interpretations across the sector. The output from this group will shortly be shared with the Building Safety Regulator. More work is ongoing in this area, with MHCLG also assessing the implementation of the new dutyholding regime under the Building Regulations 2010 (As Amended).
  
  
• APS continues to convene the BS 8770 drafting panel, with the most recent meeting taking place on Thursday 3 September. This BS will translate the principles of the ITFG guidance document on the management of individual competence in organisations. The second meeting of the drafting panel for BS8770 on the management of individual competence in organisations took place. During this meeting, APS President Mark Snelling was welcomed as one of the lead technical authors for the standard, while consensus around the scope of the document was also reached. Good progress is being made on the drafting, with the plan being that a public consultation would take place in quarter one 2027.
  
  
• On Wednesday 9 September, APS welcomed delegates from across the UK to Aston University for its first in-person National Conference in several years. Following the APS AGM, attendees enjoyed a day of presentations, industry discussion, and networking, featuring contributions from leading voices including Dame Judith Hackitt and Aman Sharma. A particular highlight was a panel discussion bringing together representatives from all four UK nations to explore post-Grenfell building safety developments. Read more here.

Recent updates that members should know about 

Building Safety Minister appointed during Summer

Since our last weekly in late July, more relevant appointments have been made, the most important announcement related to the appointment of the Minister for Building Safety, Fire and Resilience, which was taken up by Baroness Blake of Leeds. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State is responsible for:

• Building safety, regulations, Building Safety Regulator and remediation 
• Grenfell Inquiry response 
• Fire policy and operations 
• Grenfell Community, Tower and Memorial 
• Net Zero and energy efficiency 
• Resilience, recovery, and emergencies 
• Government Spokesperson for Equalities
• Planning casework

Welsh Government webinar on Parts L and F of the building regulations 

The Welsh Government is running an online webinar on Monday 5 October 2026 to outline the changes to Parts L and F of the building regulations in Wales. The webinar will be hosted by their consultants (AECOM), and there will be an opportunity to submit written questions about the changes during the event. While free of charge, one must register for the webinar by Monday 21 September 2026, by emailing enquiries.brconstruction@gov.wales

Key Government reports published on building safety in England

Last week, the English Government published two key updates in relation to the Building Safety agenda:

6th Progress report latest quarterly Grenfell progress report on Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 recommendations

• Since the last progress report in May 2026, Government have completed a further 9 recommendations. They continue to expect that all recommendations will be implemented by the end of 2029. The report also provides an update on wider reforms, including progress on remediation, social housing reforms, and how Parliament will take forward their oversight of the implementation of the recommendations.
  
  
• The update on recommendations focused on the construction industry, can be found here. They cover the publication of the government response to the prospectus consultation on 9 July 2026, construction products reform next steps, a confirmation that work continues on the Fundamental Review of Building Regulations guidance, which is considering how Approved Documents and other statutory guidance can be improved, and shares that a government update will follow in quarter 4 in relation to the mandatory accreditation for fire risk assessor proposals.  

Final report from the interim Chief Construction Advisor 

• Thouria Istephan published her final report as interim Chief Construction Adviser (CCA). The report reflects on the actions taken on her priorities, which were:
• reform of regulation for construction products
• standards for the construction of buildings and professionals involved in construction
• how evidence is gathered and learning from near misses
• assisting with the development of the permanent Chief Construction and Scientific Adviser (CCSA) role

Accountability from professionals and competence to perform one’s duties are key messages in the report. The CCA also calls on clients and insurers to set the tone around competence. This is a recurring theme across Government messaging and consultations, leading to an expectation that the policy around clients and insurers might be strengthened in future.

What’s coming up this week? (14- 20 September 2026)

Meetings that APS is involved in this week include:

• APS Fellows’ meeting
• APS Board meeting following AGM and Conference
• HRB meeting with MHCLG

We’ll continue to keep members updated on key developments and engagement across the sector through the APS weekly alert, the APS news page and across social media channels where appropriate.

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