Public consultation process opens for PAS 8673

In its role as the UK’s national standards body, the BSI is seeking consultation from people in the housing, construction, fire and safety industries. Comments can be registered online at: https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/2021-00438#/section

PAS 8673 is part of the Built Environment Competence Programme which itself supports the Building Safety Bill to raise competence requirements for three newly regulated roles, namely those of principal designer, principal contractor and building safety manager.

A building safety manager is an individual or entity appointed to take responsibility for managing building safety. PAS 8673: Built Environment – Framework for Competence of Individual Building Safety Managers and Nominated Individual Building Safety Managers – Specification specifies requirements for building safety competence relevant to the role, functions, activities and tasks of such managers based on the recommendations and core competence criteria set out in BSI Flex 8670.

It covers the competence and commitment of building safety managers in relation to building structures and building systems, the interaction of systems and components, the operational practices necessary to maintain buildings in a safe state for occupants, risk management, managing change (including the consequences of human behaviour), leadership, communication and planning skills and personal commitment to ethical behaviour and professional standards.

Further, Ps 8673 describes different levels of competence for classifying building safety managers depending on the manager’s skills, knowledge, experience and responsibility. It also indicates the pathways between the levels, in turn highlighting how these levels relate to the competence necessary to manage buildings of different complexity and safety risks.

The standard is intended for use by individual building safety managers and nominated individuals working within organisations as building safety managers. It’s also expected to be of use to organisations that will assess the competence and commitment of building safety managers (including professional bodies, trade bodies and those that regulate by statute or otherwise facilitate voluntary self-regulation), national accreditation authorities, Government agencies, employers and insurers.

Following on from the consultation period, the standard is due to be published in the early part of next year.