CICAIR Sanctions

Too much… too late

If you’re an Approved Inspector, please note that CICAIR has just published a draft of the sanctions that can be expected should you stray from their requirements. As can be expected it’s a very comprehensive, wide-ranging document and sets out the punitive measures in great detail with palpable almost eager anticipation and associated hand-wringing. You can almost see someone feverishly wiping the sweat from their top lip as they contemplate ordering a business to “…. stop taking on new work but carry on servicing existing projects.” I’m not joking… they actually say that. Can you imagine that being applied to an architectural practice? They’d be bust within a month.

If the BSR looks at the whole Building Control mess perhaps it will do the sensible thing and separate it out with the certification of buildings going to the private sector leaving the enforcement to the Public sector.

Meanwhile, the guidance issued by CICAIR on how to meet their standards is flimsy, woeful and out of touch with commercial realism. As an organisation that only pops up in your office when something may have gone wrong they’re detached from what happens in practice yet have the power to slap your wrists (with a minimum public shaming on their website of 12 months) or shut you down.

Meanwhile if you talk to the “construction industry professionals” from Bob the builder to the High Street architect to the main contractor on a high rise block of apartments, most of them are busy getting on with life without any form of punitive measures for non-compliance. Most are unaware of the new regulations that are inbound. Hardly anyone is aware of the Building Safety Regulator. What’s a Gateway? Competence?

Whilst sanctions are obviously required, reading the draft leads to the conclusion that CICAIR seems to think it’s their primary role to the exclusion of all else.

The only saving grace is that if CICAIR is absorbed by the BSR maybe the sanctions can be applied to local authorities as well. <Cue tumbleweed image>

If the BSR looks at the whole Building Control mess perhaps it will do the sensible thing and separate it out with the certification of buildings going to the private sector leaving the enforcement to the Public sector. Maybe then the councils would stop quoting low, subsidised prices and concentrate instead on enforcement – illegal work; poor work referred to them by AIs.

More on that to follow… maybe common sense will break out.

Here’s the draft sanctions – views required by end of June:

https://www.cicair.org.uk/consultation-indicative-sanctions-guidance/