APS Weekly Update – (W/C 1 June) | The Association For Project Safety

APS Weekly Update – (W/C 1 June)

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?

• Andrew Leslie attended the 14th meeting of the Scottish Building Standards - Compliance Plan working group. The group discussed updates on progress and lessons learned from the trial of the Compliance Plan arrangements by four early adopters and an update on the Compliance Plan approach (CPA).

Workshop groups considered key topics:

How BSD could maximise awareness of the Compliance Plan approach;
Proposals to amend primary legislation to make the Compliance Plan approach mandatory;
Development of a competence scheme and register for the Compliance Plan Manager and
Competence of all dutyholders.

It was noted that primary legislation on the CPA was likely to be initiated in year 3 of the current Scottish Parliament (2028) with likely roll out in 2030. In the meantime, guidance on voluntary adoption of the CPA for industry issued in January 2026 would be supplemented by further industry guidance in late May/early June 2026.

• Sofie Hooper attended the ICSG Principal Designer Working Group on Thursday 28th May. This industry group is looking at the role of the Principal Designer Building Regulations and how it is currently being implemented across the sector. Various recommendations are being pulled together in a report with a view to submitting this for discussion with the Regulator. Discussions in the meeting focused on the depth of the role of the Principal Designer BR given Regulations 11 M of the Building Regulations 2010, their relationship and engagement on the competence of other designers, with much discussion on the concept of ‘all reasonable steps’. While not yet discussed in detail, some of the recommendations touched on current implementation of the CDM Regulations, and how better distinction could be made between the PD CDM role and the PD BR role

• APS President Mark Snelling attended the BIM 4 Housing ‘As built information’ working group, also on Thursday. This group is contributing to the broader discussion around assuring consistent deliverables for ‘as built’ documentation required at Gateway 3, under The Building (Higher-Risk buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023. During this meeting, the group agreed on the definition of the term ‘as-built record’. Next step will be to discuss how this definition can be delivered in practice with appropriate assurance in place.

• Finally on Thursday, APS submitted its response to the ‘Redefining Category A building work consultation’, which aims to provide greater proportionality in the building control system for HRBs. Thank you to those Fellows who supported the APS response: Mark Snelling, Derek Bradshaw and Myra Kelly.

Recent updates members should know about

Scottish Building Safety Division publishes Industry Guidance on Compliance Plan Approach

On Thursday 28th May, the Scottish Building Standards Division published their latest guidance towards implementation of the Compliance Plan Approach: Verification during Construction High Risk Buildings- Industry Guidance to Support Implementation of Phase 1 of the Compliance Plan Approach. This document complements two other guidance documents already published in January this year- the Verifiers Guidance and the General Handbook. A launch event on the publication will be held soon.

The documents can be found here:

Verification During Construction High Risk Buildings - Industry Guidance to Support Implementation of Phase 1 of the Compliance Plan Approach - gov.scot

High risk buildings - verification during construction: phase 1 of compliance plan approach - verifiers guidance - gov.scot

Building Standards Compliance Plan General Handbook