Is the UK’s construction product testing and certification framework fit for purpose, given the combined agendas of net zero carbon and the post-Grenfell building safety regime? We are bringing construction professionals and suppliers together to find out their views, and track the recent changes, from the safety and product performance angles in particular. How can robust certification processes be used to support robust construction specification and as a result, build quality?
The Building Safety Act was introduced to bring new accountability and transparency to UK design projects, but how accountable and objective is the product testing regime behind those designs? How do we professionals navigate the construction industry’s labyrinth of product certification to ensure a robust approach, and learn the lessons from mistakes made in UKCA Mark’s introduction.
The Hackitt Report brought a new role overseeing product safety – The National Products Regulator. Hackitt stated: “The system that covers product testing, labelling and marketing is at least as complicated as the entire regulatory system… the current system makes it difficult to know whether the right products are being used.” In her introduction to the Morrell Day report she added: “up to two-thirds of products are unregulated.”
What are the best approaches for organising and clarifying the product testing and certification regime for specifiers? The hierarchy of testing and proliferation of Conformity Assessment Bodies is overwhelmingly complex, can it be simplified, and how can potential conflicts of interest be avoided? And how do product libraries and databases vet certification and testing for specifiers – from NBS and the Green Guide to smaller libraries like Changing Materials for reducing plastics in the sector?
This round table will address these questions as well as findings from our Industry Viewfinder audience research into views on product certification.
Key topics for discussion are also likely to include:
- Key changes in certification – UKCA Mark, National Construction Products Regulator, etc, pros and cons?
- Should there be a central body collating testing and certifications (and requiring third-party?)
- Could we have a ‘true’ national products testing body? BRE?
- Transparency of data eg EPDs, life cycle/cradle to cradle assessment
- How certification data can help people ‘focus on the right thing’ to achieve the carbon goals?
- How certification like EPDs can help smaller suppliers understand what they need to do, and give architects and specifiers tools to persuade clients & contractors on sustainability?
- The remaining issues to address with UKCA marking (eg around composite products)
- Views on the new Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI) for maximising Golden Thread approach and avoiding value engineering
- The potential of testing ‘systems’ of products in ‘buildups,’ rather than individual products
- What is the future of Desktop Studies – should they be banned as RIBA has called for?
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TopicsCertification Testing