Fire Safety and the prevention of loss of life is a key element of a code officials day to day work but an official cannot be on-site at all times and to assist them a Certification Scheme is being explored within the Scottish Building Standards system.

Executive Summary

Fire is a key concern for human and building safety. Prominent building failures in Scotland as well as the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in England, and their subsequent inquiries have brought a keen and highly justified focus on fire safety and effective fire-stopping measures.

The Scottish Government commissioned a series of independent inquiries and reviews into building safety and the effectiveness of the Scottish Building Standards system. In addition, in 2019, a new “Building Standards Futures Board” was established. Its role is to strategically advise and direct a broad programme of work aimed at improving the performance, expertise, resilience and sustainability of the Scottish building standards framework and services across Scotland.

www.gov.scot/publications/exploring-potential-certification-scheme-fire-stopping/

An article published on IFSEC Global ifsecglobal.com and reproduced on the SHP shponline.co.uk site provides an overview of the proposals.

After the Scottish Government commissioned a series of independent inquiries into building safety and the effectiveness of the Scottish Building Standards system, a study was undertaken to identify whether a new firestopping certification scheme should be implemented.

A sample of stakeholders, including local authorities, contractors and insurers were interviewed as part of the research, which concluded that “a certification scheme in firestopping is seen as potentially beneficial for public safety, consistency and customer confidence”.

The report, commissioned by the Building Standards Division, consequently concluded that a certification scheme should be introduced on firestopping to cover both active and passive fire safety measures.

It should be noted that within this investigation, the term ‘firestopping’ referred to all aspects – both passive and active – of the protection of buildings from fire. Certification currently operates under The Building (Scotland) Act 2003, which allows “suitably qualified and experienced building professionals to act as Approved Certifiers”.