The chief executive of the UK Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels (CARES) has said that paper-based certification can no longer be relied on after the failings that led to Grenfell, calling for “secure, fully digital formats”
After the Phase 2 Grenfell inquiry report found that the companies behind the installation of unsafe cladding engaged in “deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market,” the UK steel certification authority CARES has come forward calling scrap paper-based certification in favour of more secure digital records.
CARES chief executive Lee Brankley said: “We can no longer leave open any route to a repeat of the dishonesty and incompetence in approvals revealed so shockingly by the Grenfell tragedy.
“Where safety critical materials enter supply chains their performance and provenance must be subject to rigorous and searching examination, with any approvals or certification only issued in secure, fully digital formats.”
“A fundamental shift in supply chains” is needed
“Ending this means a fundamental shift in supply chains from specification to procurement,” Brankley continued.
“We must accept that there remain ongoing vulnerabilities as long as people continue to issue assurance certificates and product information in paper form. The truth of a product’s performance; the safety or sustainability standards it is required to meet, and the independent verification tied to rigorous assurance this demands, can only be guaranteed digitally.”
Brankley went on to assert that the “catalogue of catastrophic failings” leading to the tragedy demonstrated how paper-based certifications represented an “unacceptable vulnerability”, as commercial pressures had encouraged the industry to consider safety a secondary concern in favour of profit.
CARES has welcomed the report’s recommendations for a new construction regulator
The Grenfell Inquiry report recommended creating a new construction regulator that would take over all standards, testing and certification processes, a move that would effectively nationalise organisations like CARES.
The CARES organisation has also announced their support for inquiry recommendations such as reinstating a properly resource chief construction advisor and ending the fragmented appraoch between government departments in matters relating to construction supply and building control.
“As the ramifications of the Grenfell Report reverberate across our industry there will no doubt be a focus on the next stage in this long process of seeking full accountability,” Lee Brankley said. “While that is in the hands of others, the opportunity that is now in the hands of those of us who wish to learn from this is to take whatever swift actions we can now that can bring positive change.
“Secure, transparent and wholly digital product history is one such change we must now seize.”
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