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Industry Competence Committee terms of reference

Published 24 October 2024

Applies to England

Under the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) must establish an Industry Competence Committee (ICC) that will be concerned with the competence of persons in the built environment industry.

This committee will assist BSR in its duty to facilitate the improvement in competence of industry and building inspectors and will be established under section 11A(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The BSA states that the ICC will have the following primary functions:

• monitoring industry competence
• advising the regulator in relation to industry competence
• advising persons in the built environment industry in relation to industry competence
• facilitating persons in the built environment industry to improve industry competence
• providing guidance to the public (or a section of the public) about ways of assessing the competence of persons in the built environment industry
• carrying out analysis and research to support its other functions

This Committee will be established by September 2023

1. Purpose

The ICC will provide strategic leadership, alignment, momentum, assistance and encouragement, in support of its aim, to facilitate the improvement of competence in the built environment industry.

2. Scope

The ICC’s remit will consider competence across the wider built environment, including the competence of registered building inspectors. A key priority will be the competence of those working to design, build and manage high-rise buildings (HRBs).

As a statutory committee linked to BSR and created under the BSA, the ICC will be concerned with the competence of those working in the built environment in England. Devolved administrations may observe ICC’s work and use it within their regulatory frameworks where they see fit.

On matters relating to the competence of registered building inspectors, ICC’s scope will include Wales and Welsh Government officials will be actively engaged with this work.

3. Objectives

The ICC’s objectives must align with its purpose (defined above) and the functions set out in the BSA. The committee will develop a plan to outline how it will operationalise these functions and fulfil its remit to facilitate an improvement of competence in the built environment industry.

4. Governance

The ICC will produce a short report 3 times per year for the Chief Inspector of Buildings who will share it with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Board Subcommittee. A formal annual report will be produced for the Chief Inspector of Buildings and then published in an online format.

Where issues discussed at committee level cannot be resolved by the chair, then the escalation of issues shall be raised to the Chief Inspector of Buildings through the reporting arrangements (or whatever process is agreed). The Chief Inspector of Buildings will make the final decision on the issue if it is escalated to them. A risk register will also be put in place so that the committee will be able to escalate emerging risks or issues more frequently. The vice-chair may also decide to escalate an issue if they feel it is or has the potential to adversely affect BSR policy or reputation.

BSR will provide the Secretariat function for the ICC and establish links with other statutory committees under the BSR.

5. Authority and decision making

The ICC is established as a committee under section 11A(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to provide advice to BSR and HSE and where appropriate carry out other activities. For the ICC these other activities will be dictated by the functions outlined in the BSA.

When the ICC gives advice to BSR the decision on whether to act on that advice rests with BSR. BSR should respond to the ICC in an appropriate time-frame to make it aware of its response to advice from the ICC and any reasoning for decisions made.

The ICC will be able to communicate with industry directly to offer advice and must establish a decision-making process that involves committee agreement and sign-off by the chair and vice-chair. The vice-chair may raise issues around this communication with the Chief Inspector of Buildings before publication if they feel it conflicts with established BSR policy.

Any non-statutory guidance the ICC decides to provide to industry or the public must go through BSR and HSE clearance routes before publication. Statutory guidance can only be provided by BSR and HSE.

The secretariat will own all documents the committee creates when they are in draft form and take responsibility for incorporating the ICC’s input into the content of documents.

In certain cases, the committee may want to set up working groups on relevant topics. These will either be permanent standing working groups or task and finish groups. Such working groups need to remain within the ICC scope. Working groups will need to provide suitable written feedback, which will be considered by main committee.

The terms of reference for working groups will be decided by the ICC main committee when they are set up and then agreed by the working group during its first meeting.

6. Information and ownership

The ownership of any information and outputs from the ICC and its working groups shall reside with the HSE apart from where copyright already resides with others.

Committee information and documents should be shared appropriately and will be issued for task group participants’ consideration only. ICC and its working groups are forums to discuss a full range of ideas before reaching any conclusions and members should have confidence that these ideas and proposals are only shared within the ICC until they are agreed. Members have been brought into the ICC and its working groups to provide their individual expertise. Members may verbally discuss points of principle from documents with others outside the ICC if they feel it would help them in their considerations but unless otherwise stated they should not share documents outside the ICC and its working groups.

As the ICC is a statutory committee of HSE, it will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as part of HSE rather than independently (HSE appears in Part VI of schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information Act 2000).

Papers, agendas and minutes from the committee’s meetings may be requested from the secretariat. Some information may be withheld if an exemption applies under FOIA.

7. Membership

Membership will be through open competition and submission of an expression of interest, which will be reviewed, and decision reached by BSR. The chair should also be appointed by BSR through open competition and should be independent.

A vice-chair for the group will be appointed from within BSR to support the chair and committee to carry out its necessary functions.

Terms of appointment: members may be appointed for the full term of office (3 years) or for a shorter term as determined by the chair of the committee to reflect its requirements

Membership should include:

• a chair from industry
• a vice-chair from BSR
• at least one further BSR official
• between 10 and 15 representatives from across the built environment industry and where appropriate experts from other sectors
• a representative from unions

Officials from relevant government departments and co-regulators will also attend meetings as observers. The following departments are expected to send observes to attend (others my do so on request):

• Ministry Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Home Office
• Department for Business and Trade
• Office for Product Safety and Standards

Observers from devolved administrations may also attend meetings if requested.

The committee can co-opt any additional relevant experts to the committee at the discretion of the chair and the vice-chair, following a discussion with the committee. They can be co-opted for as long as the committee deems necessary.

A union representative can be co-opted on to the committee by the Chief Inspector of Buildings.

Working group members may be appointed on an independent basis to provide particular areas of expertise and/or experience across the built environment or specific discipline to a level considered appropriate by BSR. Appointments will be made with input from members of the main ICC steering group, but the final decision on appointment will be made by BSR.

A conflict of interest register will be maintained that members should be aware of and submit any conflicts of interest they have in relation to the ICC where necessary.

Members are expected to abide by the code of conduct (set out in a separate document).

8. Meeting arrangements

The committee would meet every 2 months, with the option to extend this more regularly on an ad-hoc basis if needed.

Members are expected to be available for all ICC meetings or provide valid reasons for not attending.

The number of members, including the chair, required to be present to be quorate will be 7 (just over 40% of members).

Secretariat to be provided by HSE, their role would be to set the direction of and agendas for the meetings, including to engage chair, vice-chair and members in producing papers and to draft minutes and action tracker.

9. Review of terms of reference

The terms of reference will be kept under review to ensure that the committee is on track to meet its objectives and alignment with the transition to BSR and policy direction. BSR reserves the right to review the committee’s effectiveness, these terms of reference at any time that it considers appropriate. A formal review of the terms of reference should be carried out at least once in every 2 years.

The membership will also be kept under review. The chair will be informed by the secretariat in situations where a committee or working group member fails to attend meetings without apology or prior agreement, or if their overall level of attendance provides cause for concern. As an example, if a member misses multiple meetings in a row, there may be a review as to whether the member should be retained.