Written question asked by Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-affiliated) on Monday, 30 November 2020, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 14 December 2020. It was answered by Lord Callanan (Conservative) on Monday, 14 December 2020 on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Building Regulations: Scotland

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Parts 1 and 3 of the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill on building regulations in Scotland; and what plans they have to ensure that Scotland will continue to be able to adopt stricter standards of building regulation.

Answer

The assessment of the impact of Parts 1 and 3 of the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill on building regulations in Scotland is as follows:

Building regulations stipulate the performance to be achieved in buildings, rather than what goods, e.g. materials, must be used to achieve it. The market access principles only apply to requirements in relation to the sale of goods or to goods sold. We do not consider building regulations would fall into these categories. As a result, we do not expect Part 1 to have any impact on the operation of building regulations in Scotland. Note also that existing regulation is out of scope of the market access principles.
On Part 3, we do not consider that the Building Regulations for Scotland contain provisions on professional qualifications, and therefore Part 3 of the Bill does not affect the operation of building standards in Scotland as a result.

The Government has no plans to limit Scotland’s existing competence in relation to building regulations.

Secondary information