Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to review the types of building work that can be undertaken through (a) competent person schemes and (b) third party certification schemes.

The Building Safety Regulator is responsible for oversight of the competent person schemes and has committed in its Strategic Plan 2023-2026 to carry out a review of the conditions of authorisation, which must be met by all competent person schemes to ensure they are fit for purpose.

In addition, the department is always looking to improve public and building safety and intends to review the operation of competent person schemes to identify whether improvements can be made, working with the Building Safety Regulator. This will include reviewing the types of work that can be carried out under the competent person schemes. We will consider whether and how this review might touch on third party certification schemes.