The Engineering Council has officially launched a new standard for building safety at an event at the House of Lords hosted by his Lordship the Earl of Lindsay.
The new UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment contextualised for Higher-Risk Buildings (UK-SPEC HRB) has been developed by the Engineering Council in response to recommendations made in Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent review of building regulations and fire safety, ‘Building a Safer Future’, which was commissioned by the UK government in the aftermath of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
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UK-SPEC HRB was developed, in collaboration with professional engineering institutions and expert volunteers, to assess the competence and commitment of individual engineers and technicians working on higher-risk buildings in the UK. Based on the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC), the new standard is tailored for engineers and technicians working in the built environment, particularly on the design, construction, maintenance and operation of higher-risk buildings.
It incorporates the criteria from BS 8670 and sets out a sector-specific competence framework consisting of a core document and discipline annexes. Demonstrating competence could involve registration against the core framework only, or a combination of the discipline annexes: fire engineering, structural engineering, building services engineering and facade engineering.
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Trustees and staff from the Engineering Council were pleased to join with representatives from the professional engineering community to celebrate this milestone in working towards improved public safety.
‘We are very proud to be launching this new standard today, which represents a significant milestone in our continuing work with the professional engineering community to ensure public safety in the built environment,’ said Engineering Council CEO Paul Bailey. ‘We hope the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire and the sad loss of 72 lives will never be seen again. UK-SPEC HRB will provide a means for those engineers and technicians working in the built environment, particularly on the design, construction, maintenance and operation of higher-risk buildings, to become professionally registered. This is the first step, however, and it is our hope that UK-SPEC HRB is embraced and championed by the sector and the wider engineering profession, and that the standard, and the register of those individuals assessed against it, will support the continuing improvement of public safety across the sector.’
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UK-SPEC HRB can be viewed and downloaded here.