The Building Engineering Services Association has removed the members as part of its independent audit
The audit, undertaken by the association’s council and independent parties, is examining BESA members to ensure they maintain the qualities and standards required to uphold the best interests of the building engineering sector.
The 14 companies removed from the list were found to be falling short of the Competence Assessment Standard (CAS), meaning issues with business practices, financial solvency, insurance, health & safety, or technical proficiency.
Taking “robust action” on BESA members
The Build UK Common Assessment Standard serves as the benchmark for the CAS, requiring firms on the member list to adhere to these standards.
An independent inspector with UKAS accreditation is also carrying out the audit. This will remove any partiality in judgement when determining whether BESA members are delivering work that is safe and of sufficient quality.
This investigation includes an on-site technical audit to see the BESA member company in action.
BESA chief executive officer, David Frise, said: “BESA has never been afraid to robustly defend its remit and constitution.
“We do not suspend members lightly but take our wider responsibilities to the industry and its ultimate clients – building occupants – extremely seriously.
“Last week’s Grenfell: Uncovered documentary on Netflix was a timely reminder of why we must do everything we can to maintain the highest possible standards. It should remind us that every decision we make has a consequence – whether in the short-term or much further down the road for the people who inhabit buildings.
“The country should be able to depend on its building services industry to deliver work to the highest possible standards.”
BESA and post-Grenfell
BESA have been working steadfastly in the wake of the Grenfell Inquiry.
Last year, in November, they revised their DW145-‘Installation of Fire Dampers and Smoke Dampers’ industry guidance.
This guidance covers requirements for installing, testing, and maintaining fire dampers, including the client’s legal obligations to ensure the fire safety system is compliant with regulatory reforms.
It also emphasises the importance of the penetration seal in the building’s overall fire-stopping integrity.
The final report of the Grenfell Inquiry was also published in February, containing 1,700 pages documenting “decades of failure” and “systematic dishonesty”.
Key findings of the report include:
- Architects Studio E, the buildersRydon and Harley Facades who took an “unacceptably casual” approach to building regulations. Harley Facades, who installed the flammable cladding system, assumed others would check the materials were appropriate. Studio E did not perform the work of a “reasonably competent architect” in identifying the fire risks posed by the cladding.
- The landlords, Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, who allowed their relationship with tenants to devolve into “personal antagonism” and demonstrated “a basic neglect of its obligations in relation to fire safety.”
- Kingspan, who made around 5% of the combustible foam insulation on the tower, who “knowingly created a false market in insulation for use on buildings over 18 metres in height”, which created the market conditions allowing fellow insulation company Celotex(who made the majority of the combustible foam insulation on Grenfell Tower) to break into the market by “dishonest means.”
- Private safety accreditation bodies Local Authority Building Control (LABC)and the British Board of Agrément (BBA), who “failed to ensure that the statements in their product certificates were accurate and based on test evidence,” and were willing to “accommodate the customer at the expense of those who relied on certificates.”
- American cladding panel manufacturer Arconic, whose French subisidiary provided the panels to Grenfell Tower, were accused of “deliberately” concealing the true extent of the risk posed by the panels on high-rise buildings, being “determined to exploit what it saw as weak regulatory regimes in certain countries including the UK.”
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