Construction products in the spotlight

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has published its Construction Products Reform White Paper.

This white paper sets out a proportionate and comprehensive package of system-wide reforms to address the regulatory gaps and critical issues in the construction products sector, which has been largely unreformed since the Grenfell Tower fire.

The white paper outlines clear policies and next steps for long-term reform. These include:

• progressing additional measures to strengthen the regulatory regime
• a step change in product information, testing standards, certification oversight and digitisation; and
• stronger powers, clearer responsibilities and a more coherent regulatory framework to support the work of the national regulator for construction products.

The white paper also sets out a path towards the introduction of a general safety requirement, which will bring currently unregulated products into the construction products regulatory regime. This requirement will place a proportionate, risk-based duty on manufacturers and other businesses in the supply chain to ensure that only safe products are placed on the UK market. A consultation on the general safety requirement has been published alongside the white paper.

PAS 2000:2026

PAS 2000:2026 Construction products – Bringing safe products to market – Code of practice has been published.

Written by CABE’s Head of Technical Insight Dr Hywel Davies, this framework is designed to strengthen product safety and support regulatory reform across the built environment following a recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

To read the Construction Products Reform White Paper and respond to the consultation before it closes on 20 May go to b.link/GOV_conwhitepaper
To read PAS 2000 go to b.link/BSI_PAS2000

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