These are significant and necessary steps for the future of the building and fire safety regime. Reinforcing safety, minimising risks and bolstering professional competence to deliver quality are all essential in ensuring buildings are safe for residents and users.
We are committed to ensuring the ongoing competence and professionalism of our members for the public benefit, and we look forward to supporting recommendations that relate to structural engineering.
We continue to produce guidance for our members and other structural engineers to support them in understanding and working to the requirements of the Building Safety Act.
We have already produced
expert technical guidance about HRBs, and with ICE have recently been awarded a licence by the Engineering Council to operate a
competency register of members qualified to work on HRBs.
Core to building safety is the remit of
CROSS, the UK's confidential reporting system, which allows professionals working in the built environment to report on fire and structural safety issues. IStructE continues to work alongside the ICE and IFE, to support CROSS in alerting the industry to structural and fire safety matters, changing culture and improving competence.
The Institution welcomes the government’s agreement to consider how to most effectively protect and regulate the fire engineering profession. By extension, we believe that the title of “Structural Engineer” should be protected and its use reserved to those who demonstrate the required levels of competence, through independent third-party assessment, and who have agreed to work in accordance with a Code of Conduct.
We will continue our collaborations with industry, policy-makers and other professional bodies across the built environment, to enhance standards, competence and professionalism, and ultimately improve building safety for the public.
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For further information please contact:
The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) Newsroom on +44 (0)7930 53 45 43.
Notes to Editors
About the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)
https://www.istructe.org/
The Institution of Structural Engineers dates from 1908 and is now the world’s largest membership organisation dedicated to the art and science of structural engineering.
It has 30,000 members working in 139 countries around the world. Professional membership is one of the leading global benchmarks of competence and technical excellence. Members undergo rigorous technical assessment and commit to continual learning and development.
The Institution drives higher standards and shares knowledge because its members’ work is vital to public safety and meeting the challenges of the future. The Institution provides a voice for its members, promoting their contribution to society as innovative, creative problem solvers and the guardians of public safety.