The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is investigating whether individual building control firms have enough qualified inspectors to carry out their duties.
In a statement, BSR head of building control professional standards Ged Cooper revealed the regulator had started asking both public and private building control bodies for evidence that they had access to inspectors with the right qualifications, without which they would not be able to sign off work.
The BSR also revealed thousands more building control inspectors had qualified after extending the initial assessment deadline by 13 weeks following fears a “significant number” of local authorities would be left without any registered inspectors.
Some building inspectors had not heard back about their certification by the new deadline, leading the BSR to further extend their ability to work without the right qualifications while it processed their applications.
The total number of building control professionals that have signed up with the regulator sits at just over 4,000, around 500 less than the regulator last year said would need to be certified.
Around 2,000 have now qualified as a registered building inspector or specialist building inspector, allowing them work without supervision. A quarter of them have also qualified as a technical manager, giving them additional capabilities for managing teams.
However, almost an equal number (1,971) of working building inspectors remain at the trainee level and cannot work independently.
Construction News reported in April that a third of the expected number of building control professionals had not applied for certification by the time the government extended the deadline in March. At that time, only 419 building inspectors were certified to carry out inspections independently.
Cooper said the BSR was “encouraged” by the uptick in registrations, adding it expected more progress in the future.
He said: “Looking at the landscape ahead, the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of building control activities are set to significantly improve”.
