The government has proposed harsh penalties for manufacturers and distributors of unsafe construction products, including prison time and unlimited fines.
Under plans set out yesterday (26 February), it would become a criminal offence for companies or online marketplaces to provide inaccurate production information or fail to comply with an enforcement action.
Addressing Parliament, housing secretary Angela Rayner promised “prison time for executives who break the rules and unlimited fines where safety is put at risk”.
The proposals were set out as part of the government’s response to the recommendations of the inquiry into the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. The west London tower was clad in combustible materials, aiding the rapid fire to spread, killing 72 people.
The inquiry report concluded that the three manufacturers that provided those materials had obtained misleading certificates, which it said evidenced “a serious failure of the system”.
Rayner said the reforms would “cut out the rot in the sector and allow competence to take root”.
She added: “Safety will come first, and a culture of responsibility will prevail. We will celebrate those that lead the way and those that fall short will suffer the consequences.”
Alongside the new penalties for product manufacturers, the key reforms proposed included:
- Mandatory safety requirements for all currently unregulated construction products.
- Shifting responsibility for assessing the safety risks of each construction product to its manufacturer.
- Licensing of conformity assessment bodies (CABs).
- Proactive routine inspections by a new national regulator.
- A library for construction products, including digital labelling.
- Mandatory minimum requirements for third-party certification schemes.
- Increased oversight of CABs, including regular audits and whistleblowing mechanisms.
- A coordination framework between regulatory bodies.
- Lifecycle assessments for construction products.
- Improving legal routes for those affected by unsafe construction products to seek redress, including financial compensation, from their manufacturers.
The consultation document also serves as the government’s formal response to the independent review of construction product regulations, published nearly two years ago. The report’s authors, Paul Morrell and Annaliese Day, concluded that enforcement of the existing regulations had been “almost totally non-existent”.
To beef up market oversight, the government is hoping to empower a new national regulator to proactively investigate products, underpinned by better information sharing between regulators and assessors.
Oversight
Greater oversight of CABs is on the table, although the government has rejected an inquiry recommendation that conformity assessment be brought out of the private sector and under the remit of the new regulator.
Rayner said in Parliament yesterday that while she accepted the recommendation in principle, her department’s proposals would avoid the conflict of interest of the regulator policing its own compliance.
However, the Grenfell United group of bereaved and survivors said the government should have taken testing and certification away from private bodies, branding Rayner’s explanation an “excuse”.
Its statement said: “But who benefits from that? The same construction companies that defrauded tests which killed 72 people.”
The government is also exploring the concept of digital labels, potentially modelled on EU proposals for Digital Product Passports (DPPs). A DPP would be a digital information store, making information on a product’s manufacture and intended use easily accessible for users, the supply chain and regulators.
Also modelled on EU regulations, the government is looking into requiring lifecycle assessments of construction products, tracing their environmental impact and enabling their reuse.
Such information would be housed in a publicly accessible construction product library, linked to the new national regulator. The inquiry report said a library containing product test data and reports on serious fires would benefit building designers, particularly those who design higher-risk buildings.
The government envisions a ‘one stop shop’ for consumers that would also support the regulator’s market surveillance. It said it would consider charges so that those making test results available could recover costs.
Industry response
Industry response to the consultation has so far been positive. Mace chair Mark Reynolds said: “The inquiry highlighted widespread failures by manufacturers, the construction products sector and the institutions that should have been responsible for ensuring high standards and assurance of the system.
“It is incumbent on us all to fully engage with and respond to the proposals for reform set out in the Construction Products Reform Green Paper published alongside the government’s response.”
McLaren building safety managing director Paul Woodhams said the government’s commitment to reforming construction products “is one step in the right direction to ensure that all companies in the supply chain work to the same rigorous standards as main contractors”.
And the Construction Products Association welcomed the publication of the green paper, adding: “Its ambition, clarity and direction of travel for the construction products sector has been long awaited”.
The consultation will remain open for responses until 21 May.
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Charlotte Banks