15 THE door industry journal summer 2023 Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk Industry News Six Years after Grenfell: What Legislation has Changed? On the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell fire tragedy, which resulted in the loss of 72 lives, dhf’s General Manager & Secretary, Michael Skelding, looks back on this year’s developments with regards to legislation and the resultant impact on dhf members. On 14th June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, in the early hours of the morning. The fire, which burned for 60 hours, claimed the lives of 72 people, with more than 70 injured and 223 escaping. It remains the deadliest structural fire in the UK since the 1988 Piper Alpha oil-platform disaster. Over the past year, a number of regulations have come into force to prevent the recurrence of such an incident, such as the Construction Product (Amendment) Regulations in July 2022; this has enabled the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to act as an enforcement authority for construction products. This legislation was made in exercise of the powers conferred by Schedule 11 of the Building Safety Act 2022, and effectively paved the way for the new National Regulator for Construction Products to be established by the Office for Product Safety and Standards, thus allowing for enhanced and strengthened regulation of construction products. Further secondary legislation is intended. “It is clear that enforcement of the existing Construction Products Regulations, as undertaken by local authorities’ trading standards departments since 1991, has been ineffective due to a lack of recourses and specific training,” explains Michael. “The report “Testing for a Safer Future” confirms this. The direct involvement of OPSS, acting under DLUHC, should improve the effectiveness of enforcement and lead to more prosecutions where defective and, in particular, dangerous, products are concerned. This will potentially affect all manufacturers of construction products.” In October 2022, the White Paper on Construction Products Competence (CPC) was published. It was created by WG 12 of the Competence Steering Group (CSG) and the document has been widely supported throughout the construction products supply chain. As a result, in January 2023, BSI Committee CPB/1 established a new project to create a Code of Practice for Core Criteria for Construction Products Competence, to be based on the White Paper. The purpose of the standard is to help ensure that individuals using or otherwise working with construction products are competent to do so and can demonstrate their competence to others. The standard is expected to describe five levels of core criteria that should be achieved, demonstrated, and maintained by all individuals making choices concerning construction products at all levels in the built environment sector. It is also expected to include a methodology of application to define how those core level criteria can be mapped by industries within the built environment sector consistently to their competence frameworks. The standard is intended to be used, in conjunction with BS 8670, by all industries in the built environment sector to map against their existing training and qualifications to demonstrate the construction product competence of the individuals in their work force. They may also use it to identify any gaps in their training and qualifications. “While dhf training currently focuses on installing and maintaining products correctly, this initiative is based on the understanding that many actors in the supply chain need to be competent in dealing with construction products; this would include, for example: manufacturers, distributors, architects, risk assessors, building safety managers as well as installers and maintainers. We will continue to support this initiative through our membership of CSG WG 12,” adds Michael. On 23rd January 2023, The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, made under Article 24 of the Fire Safety Order 2005, came into force. These regulations impose additional duties on the responsible persons in residential buildings of multiple occupancy (BMO). In buildings taller than 11 metres, the new regulations require quarterly checks on fire doors in communal areas and annual checks on flat entrance doors. As Michael says: “Some members will be involved in carrying out fire door inspections under these regulations and there will be an increased need for training.” The following month saw the first meeting of the new Building Advisory Committee, chaired by Peter Baker, Chief Inspector of Buildings, and head of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in HSE. ....Continued on next page.
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