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0.1.1 Introduction
The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 gives Scottish Ministers the power to
make Building Regulations to:
- secure the health, safety, welfare and convenience of persons in or
about buildings and of others who may be affected by buildings
or matters connected with buildings,
- further the conservation of fuel and power, and
- further the achievement of sustainable development.
This document gives guidance on how to comply with these regulations.
This is one of two companion documents, one covering domestic buildings
and the other non-domestic buildings. Each document has seven sections.
Section 0, this section, is identical in both documents. It covers general
issues and sets out how and when the regulations apply to buildings
and building work.
Both documents are published in two forms, as printed loose leaf sheets
with an A4 binder and on the Scottish Executive web-site. It is quite
acceptable to download and print off individual parts or sections of the
Standards and all future amendments and updates will be included on the
web-site.
Sections 1 to 6 give guidance on how to achieve the standards set by
the regulations, and there are different sets for domestic buildings
and non-domestic buildings. The six sections each cover a number
of related standards, they are:
Section 1 Structure
Section 2 Fire
Section 3 Environment
Section 4 Safety
Section 5 Noise
Section 6 Energy
Each of the six sections consists of an introduction and then guidance
on the standards within the section. In the printed version the standard
and some introduction information is given on a yellow page, while the
guidance on how comply with standard is given in the succeeding white
pages.
In Section 0 Regulations 1 and 2 are considered together and then each
successive regulation is considered in turn. In the printed version the
first page of each section is yellow and subsequent pages are white.
At the end of the document, after Section 6, there are the following:
Appendix A : Defined
Terms
Appendix B : List of
standards and other publications
Appendix C: Cross-reference
to the 6th Amendment of the Technical Standards.
A full index will also be provided in the final published version.
0.1.2 The building regulations
This document gives guidance on achieving the standards set in the building
regulations. The standards themselves can be found in Schedules 5 to 8
to Regulation 9, and are in the form of ‘expanded functional standards’.
That is, the standards describe the functions a building should
perform, such as ‘providing resistance to the spread of fire’,
and are an expanded and more detailed form of the previous building standards
regulations.
The building regulations made by the Scottish Ministers are subject to
approval by the Scottish Parliament. The content of the regulations, so
far as it relates to technical specifications, is also scrutinised by
the European Commission (EC). The EC checks with all the other countries
that have adopted the Construction Products Directive (CPD) to
ensure that no barriers to trade in construction products are created,
either directly, or indirectly by the way products are described.
To meet the requirements of the CPD, materials and construction
methods must be described by use of suitable European Standards wherever
these exist. As there is a rolling programme of change to these ‘harmonised’
European Standards, the guidance documents have been designed to be readily
updated. An explanation of the relevance and status of specific European
and British standards referred to in the Guidance Documents is in the
section concerned. There is also a list of the publications referred to
in the documents provided in Appendix B.
The arrangement of the guidance documents relates directly to the Essential
Requirements of the CPD (as published by the EC), which construction
works are expected to satisfy when they have been properly designed
and built. The arrangement is as follows:
Section 1 Structure (EC
- Mechanical resistance and stability)
Section 2 Fire
(EC - Safety in case of fire)
Section 3 Environment
(EC - Hygiene, health and the environment)
Section 4 Safety
(EC - Safety in use)
Section 5 Noise
(EC - Protection against noise)
Section 6 Energy
(EC - Energy economy and heat retention).
0.1.3 The building standards system
The building regulations are enforced through the building standards
system also established by the Building (Scotland) Act 2003. This Act
sets out the enabling powers that allow the Scottish Ministers to make,
not only the building regulations, but also procedure regulations, fees
regulations and the other supporting legislation needed to operate the
system. The system is designed to ensure that new buildings and
building work achieve the objectives of the Act in terms
of health, safety, welfare, convenience, conservation of fuel and power,
and sustainable development.
The roles of those operating the building standards system are explained
in detail in the guidance on the procedure regulations. Briefly, the duty
to comply with the building regulations lies with the owner, or, in some
cases the client for the work. Before work begins a building
warrant must be obtained. For some simpler works a warrant is not
required (see regulation 5 and schedule 3), but the regulations still
apply. The owner or client again has the duty to comply. The role of issuing
warrants and accepting completion certificates rests with Verifiers, enforcement
is by Local Authorities, and the system is overseen and updated by the
Scottish Building Standards Agency advised by the Building Standards Advisory
Committee. This agency will be an executive agency of the Scottish Executive
Development Department once it is established; that is to say it is an
integral part of the Scottish Executive and answering directly to the
responsible Scottish Minister. These bodies are further explained in the
guidance to the procedure regulations.
The building standards system is pre-emptive, ensuring so far as possible
that the proposed building work will comply with the regulations.
It recognises that proposals can change during construction, so
there are requirements for amendments to the proposals to be agreed and
recorded. On completion, the owner or client must certify that the work
has been constructed in accordance with the building warrant and
the building regulations. The verifier will make reasonable inquiry to
ensure the completion certificate is accurate before accepting the certificate.
Usually an inspection of the work will be made, and on larger projects
some inspection of work in progress may also have been carried
out. However verifiers cannot inspect all materials and work on
every building site. It is the client that should put in
place the contractual and practical arrangements needed to assure themselves
that the desired quality of work has been achieved.
0.1.4 Status of guidance documents
The regulations are mandatory, but the choice of how to comply lies with
building owner. This document has been issued by Scottish Ministers through
the Building Standards Agency to provide guidance on how to comply with
regulations. If the guidance is followed in full then this should by accepted
by the verifier as indicating that the building regulations have been
complied with. However it is quite acceptable to use alternative methods
of compliance provided they fully satisfy the regulations.
Failure to comply with the Guidance Documents does not render a person
liable to civil or criminal procedures, but proof of compliance with the
guidance may be relied on in any proceedings as tending to negative liability
for an alleged contravention of the building regulations.
Following the advice in the Guidance Documents is therefore likely to
be the normal way of complying with the building regulations. However,
a designer may put forward other ways of meeting the regulations, in the
form of alternative solutions.
0.1.5 Alternative solutions
The use of expanded functional standards, backed up by detailed guidance
documents, provides a flexible system of control. Consideration of alternative
solutions is assisted by the expansion of the functional standards previously
used in the building standards regulations to clarify the necessary properties
of each building. The need for a formal relaxation of standards is reduced
as meeting the full details of given solutions is no longer mandatory.
The professional judgement of the Verifier, assisted by opinions on questions
referred to Scottish Ministers, through the Scottish Building Standards
Agency, decides whether a standard is met.
In considering alternative solutions, however, it is necessary to have
regard to the details of this guidance. Where performance standards or
policy statements are given, every part of the solution is expected to
meet them. As a result, alternative solutions that appear suitable may
not be acceptable in detail. For example, some of the solutions offered
in relation to the English and Welsh building regulations, in the ‘Approved
Documents’ (ADs), are not suitable because the levels of thermal
insulation recommended are not the same. Similarly different approaches
are taken to the control of fire size and the design of compartmentation
which means that constructions meeting the AD on fire safety may
not be acceptable. This will vary in time as both ADs and the Scottish
Guidance Documents are updated. Solutions based on other documents, such
as British or European Standards, will have to be carefully evaluated
to see if the Scottish standards are being met in an appropriate manner.
0.1.6 Domestic and non-domestic buildings
Where any building contains both domestic uses and non-domestic
uses, the appropriate parts from each Guidance Document will need to be
used to ensure the standards are complied in full. For example a caretakers
flat in an office building. However communal rooms
or other areas in a block of dwellings that are exclusively associated
with the dwellings, should be considered using the domestic guidance.
Examples of this might be a room used as an office for the
operation of sheltered housing accommodation or a lounge communal to a
block of dwellings. It is also a general principle that where a
building or part of a building might be seen as falling
into more than one category it should be designed to meet the most stringent
recommendations.
0.1.7 Latest changes
The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 replaced the Building (Scotland) Act
1959 and these guidance documents replace the Technical Standards to the
Building (Scotland) Regulations 1990 as amended (6th Amendment
2001). The form and status of this guidance is very different from the
previous Technical Standards. Before it was only possible to satisfy the
Regulations by compliance with Technical Standards. This meant they were
mandatory rather than guidance.
Although this guidance document has a very different status from the
Technical Standards the technical recommendations are very similar and
this document has been prepared as an almost level transposition from
the previous Technical Standards. There has been significant updating
of detailed issues and the introduction of additional advice and explanation,
but there has been relatively little change in the technical specifications.
Where significant change has occurred this is recorded in the introductions
to the six sections.
This guidance appears very different because of the re-arrangement of
sections to follow the six Essential Requirements of the CPD. A general
summary of the re-arrangement is given below:
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