10.11.1 It has already been stated in this Report that an underlying objective of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 is:
"to secure the health, safety, welfare and convenience of persons in or about buildings and of others who may be affected by buildings or matters connected with building."
10.11.2 This Report has referred to two significant incidents of defective construction:
• the inadequate structural integrity of external masonry wall panels across 17 projects; and
• the widespread occurrence of defects in fire-stopping in the same buildings.
10.11.3 Both these faults represent risks to the users of these buildings, which is what the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 seeks to prevent. This would suggest that perhaps further steps may be necessary in relation to assuring the safety of buildings and assisting in the delivery of this core objective of Government policy.
10.11.4 The current process appears to focus resources on ensuring submitted design information is compliant with the regulations, yet as has been identified in the case of the PPP1 schools, a lesser focus appears to be applied to ensuring that what is built is compliant with the approved designs.
10.11.5 It is the view of the Inquiry that it is not appropriate for Building Standards to be expected to undertake the type and level of detailed inspection that is necessary to identify in a comprehensive fashion the type of defects discussed in this Report, but that consideration should be given to requiring better practice methods of the construction industry that would in turn provide Buildings Standards with the proper level of assurance in these risk areas.
10.11.6 The principle of certification by approved certifiers of areas of construction such as electrical and plumbing installations has already been established in the current Buildings Standards system for Scotland. The evidence provided in this Report would indicate that the two types of defective construction found in the PPP1 schools, wall construction and fire-stopping, could perhaps be quite common occurrences in new buildings but their presence is concealed due to a combination of the difficulty of access and inadequate inspection.
10.11.7 In these circumstances, there may be benefit in considering the practicality of extending the concept of mandatory certification by approved certifiers to other elements of the building, such as the two areas covered in this Report, that could potentially pose significant risk to users if not constructed properly.