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 over the last week?

• Sofie Hooper, APS CEO, kicked off the week on Monday 9 November, attending the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government’s (MHCLG) newly created Fire Safety Strategy Working Group. The Government accepted the Grenfell Inquiry report recommendation to make it a statutory requirement that a fire safety strategy produced by a registered engineer be submitted with building control applications (at Gateway 2 and gateway 3). The purpose of this working group is to provide advice to support officials in developing legislation and guidance in fire safety strategies. The work fits into the broader work on Fire Engineers as outlined in the Authoritative Statement. More background information about the Authoritative statement can be found here. It is one of the areas of Government policy, where specific legislative requirements around function and title of a safety critical profession – fire engineers – are expected. Many across the sector are wondering if this will be the template to regulate safety critical professions as part of the forthcoming Professions Strategy.

• While APS can report on the existence of the group and its purpose, we will not be able to share discussions taking place in the group.  We will keep of course keep members updated about developments across this area once we are able to do so. The topic of fire safety strategies was presented on at the APS Conference on 9 September, by Aman Sharma.

• On Tuesday, Sofie represented APS at the November CIC Council Meeting were discussions focused on the Government’s forthcoming Professions Strategy and Budget (England) analysis. Much had been made about the Budget statement line which said: no major changes to building regulations during this Parliament except where it is critical to safety. Clarifications have since been received that Building Safety, including responding to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, remains a key priority for the Government and this Budget announcement does not change that. Any changes required to ensure the safety of buildings will still take place, including on fire safety and other key areas like overheating.

• It was also confirmed that the Budget announcement doesn’t affect changes that are already underway such as the Future Homes Standard coming into force (on 24 March 2027- the Future Homes and Buildings Standards legislative changes were laid in Parliament on 24^th March 2026) or reform of the Construction Products system. The Budget commitment to not make major changes to building regulations applies to any future changes and only for the duration of this parliament. For APS this means that our engagement on the Professions Strategy in England will be ongoing, while we will pick up on any future next steps in the Construction Products System, especially as they are likely to put requirements on both the PD BR and the PD CDM, including through guidance or statutory obligations to identify and mitigate risks in ‘safety critical scenarios’.

• Towards the end of the week, Sofie had the opportunity to meet the Health and Safety Executive’s team responsible for CDM. A very good introductory meeting took place, with Sofie outlining some of APS’s priorities, including those in relation to the Post-Implementation Review (published in May 2026).

Recent updates that members should know about 

HSE response to asbestos consultation

On 3 November, the HSE published its response to their consultation on legislative and guidance proposals for the Control of Asbestos regulation. APS submitted a response to the consultation which ran from November to 9 January 2026.  You can find the APS news item summarising the HSE response here, while you can find the HSE response in full here.

HSE Annual Report and Accounts 

Also last week, the HSE published its Annual Report and Accounts 2025-2026. The document provides a summary about what the HSE does, their purpose, the key risk to them achieving their objectives and how they have performed during the year.

It summarises some of the key impacts made, including details around their enforcement action:

• 265 completed criminal prosecutions
• Over £34.5 million awarded in fines
• 4,870 notices including approximately:  3,690 notices for improvement and 1,180 notices prohibiting work activity placing people at risk of death or serious injury
• Completed 83% of fatal investigations within 12 months of receiving primacy against a target of 80%

The HSE Annual Report and Accounts 2025 to 2026 can be found here.

The BSR’s Building Advisory Committee is looking for members (England)

The Building Safety Regulator’s Building Advisory Committee (BAC) is searching for a range of professionals to strengthen the committee’s role in providing advice and ensuring continued and sustainable improvement to building safety.

BAC was established under the Building Safety Act 2022 to provide independent advice and information to the BSR, helping ensure robust evidence and critical thinking inform policy decisions that protect people and improve building safety standards. Currently chaired by Dr. Barbara Lane, BAC also aims to anticipate emerging risks, enable safe innovation and provide detailed technical support for a safer more equitable and sustainable built environment.

Applications are being sought from a variety of different sectors including:

• academic
• design
• construction
• housing
• risk management
• safety and regulatory spheres

Appointments will be for three years, with a time commitment of 15 days per year. While these are voluntary positions, expenses will be reimbursed. The list of positions BAC is looking to fill can be found here, with additional information about each of the positions to be found here. The information also details how to apply, before the deadline of 23 November.

Scottish Building Division and recertification 

Under The Building (Scotland) Act 2003, the option of certification of design or construction of building work was introduced as a means of complying with the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004. The certification system is based on the principle that suitably qualified and experienced building professionals and tradespeople can be responsible for confirming that specified works comply with building regulations.

This option has become a well-established part of the building standards system. Certification Scheme Providers are appointed by Scottish Ministers and are responsible for managing, monitoring and auditing of registered certifiers. All scheme providers have now been reappointed for a further six year period until September 2032. Please find the full list here: Building Standards Certification Scheme Provider Reappointments - Building Standards

What’s coming up this week? (9-15 November 2026)

Meetings that APS is involved in this week include:

• CIC 2050 Group
• CLC Sector call
• APS Board meeting
• SSIP Forum
• CIC Digital Forum
• 
  

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.