A consultation paper inviting ideas on the reform of the building control system in Scotland
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Everyone wants the buildings they live in, work in, or visit to be warm and safe. We also want these buildings to be accessible to everyone, whether pushing a buggy or needing a wheelchair to get around. It is also in everyone’s interest to have buildings which use as little energy as possible and are as environmentally friendly as possible.
At present the standards for new buildings are set by the Scottish Executive and administered by local authorities. The present system has worked well for the last forty years. Today however, higher standards are expected of our buildings, greater flexibility is expected of our designers and less red tape is demanded of our public bodies. There is therefore a need for change. This paper invites ideas on how the system of defining and enforcing building standards can be improved.
I hope organisations and individuals will contribute to this review of the building control system. Part one of this paper describes the present system and how it came into being. The second part sets out a series of questions to which we would like to receive responses, and the third part describes how these responses will be considered and how the review of the system will be conducted. The final part is a return proforma that we would encourage you to use in preparing your response.
The present system was developed in the nineteen fifties. This consultation is concerned with modernising the standards and the processes that apply in building control. We hope to use the responses to develop a better system which will stand the test of time.
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Sarah Boyack
Minister for Transport and the Environment.