These Regulations largely revoke, in relation to Wales, provisions of the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010 (“the AI Regulations”) with the amendments to those Regulations made by S.I. 2013/747 (W. 89), 2014/58 (W. 5), 2014/110 (W. 10), 2016/611 (W. 168), 2018/558 (W. 97), 2022/564 (W. 130), 2022/767 (W. 167), 2024/244 (W. 49), and 2024/447 (W. 75).

These Regulations also revoke the Building (Building Control Profession) (Registration, Sanctions and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2023 (“the 2023 Regulations”) and restate provisions relating to the registration of registered building inspectors and registered building control approvers, sanctions for registered building control approvers and appeals.

Section 47 of the Building Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”) provides that the responsibility for inspecting plans and building work for compliance with building regulations may, at the option of the person intending to carry out the work, be given to a registered building control approver (“approver”) instead of to the local authority.

Part 2 of these Regulations makes provision about the supervision of building work by approvers including the independence of approvers and their functions, and applies in relation to building work which is the subject of the initial notice provisions of the Building Regulations 2010 (“the 2010 Regulations”) and regulation 7A of the Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012.

Regulation 3 derives from regulation 9 of the AI Regulations and requires that approvers have no professional or financial interest in the work that they supervise. Regulation 4, which specifies the functions of approvers, derives from regulation 8 of the AI Regulations. Regulation 5 derives from regulation 20 of the AI Regulations.

Part 3 of these Regulations makes provision in relation to procedural requirements where building work is supervised by approvers, including the forms to be used for initial notices, amendment notices, plans certificates and final certificates, the grounds for rejecting these notices and certificates, the period for rejecting them, and consultation requirements.

Regulation 6 and Forms 1(W), 4(W) and 7(W) derive from regulations 10 and 16A(1) of, and Forms 1(W), 4(W) and 7(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations. Schedule 2 derives from Schedule 2 to, the AI Regulations.

Regulation 7 and Forms 2(W) and 7(W) derive from regulations 11 and 16A(1) of, and Forms 2(W) and 7(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations.

Regulation 8 derives from regulation 12 of the AI Regulations. Regulation 9 derives from regulation 13 of the AI Regulations.

Regulation 10 and Forms 3(W) and 4(W) derive from regulations 14 and 16A(1) of, and Forms 3(W), 4(W) and 7(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations. Schedule 3 derives from Schedule 3 to, the AI Regulations.

Regulation 11 derives from regulation 15 of the AI Regulations.

Regulation 12 and Form 5(W) derive from regulation 16 of, and Form 5(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations. Schedule 4 derives from Schedule 4 to the AI Regulations.

Regulation 13 and Form 8(W) derive from regulation 16A(2) of, and Form 8(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations.

Regulation 14 derives from regulation 17 of the AI Regulations.

Regulations 15 and 16 and Forms 9(W) to 17(W) derive from regulations 18 and 18A of, and Forms 9(W) to 17(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations.

Part 4 of these Regulations sets out the procedures where building work reverts to a local authority on an initial notice ceasing to be in force.

Regulation 17 derives from regulation 19 of the AI Regulations. Regulation 18 derives from regulation 19A of the AI Regulations.

Part 5 of these Regulations makes provision for where an initial notice ceases to be in force and a new approver is appointed. In particular, regulation 20 derives from regulation 19C of the AI Regulations and makes provision as to the content of a transfer certificate, and regulation 22 and Schedule 5 derive from regulation 19E of and Schedule 3A to, the AI Regulations and set out the grounds for rejecting a transfer certificate and transfer report.

Regulation 23 derives from regulation 27 of the AI Regulations and prescribes circumstances where a further initial notice may be given after cancellation of an initial notice under section 53D of the 1984 Act. These include the approver cancelling the notice under section 52(1)(a) of the 1984 Act, the person carrying out or intending to carry out the work cancelling the initial notice under section 53D(3) of the 1984 Act, and the approver having been given a specified disciplinary order.

Section 54 of the 1984 Act permits approved public bodies to supervise their own building work. Part 6 covers the approval of public bodies, and procedural and consultation requirements where public bodies supervise their own work including in particular the prescribed forms of, and grounds for the local authority to reject, a public body’s notice, a plans certificate and a final certificate.

Regulation 24 derives from regulation 21 of the AI Regulations.

Regulation 25 and Form PB1(W) derive from regulation 22 of and Form PB1(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations. Schedule 6 derives from Schedule 5 to the AI Regulations. Regulation 26 derives from regulation 23 of the AI Regulations and regulation 27 derives from regulation 24 of the AI Regulations.

Regulation 28 and Forms PB2(W) and PB3(W) derive from regulation 25 of and Forms PB2(W) and PB3(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations. Schedule 7 derives from Schedule 6 to the AI Regulations. Regulation 29 derives from regulation 26 of the AI Regulations.

Regulation 30 and Form PB4(W) derive from regulation 27 and Form PB4(W) in Schedule 1 to, the AI Regulations. Schedule 8 derives from Schedule 7. Regulation 31 derives from regulation 28 of the AI Regulations.

Part 7 of these Regulations provides in regulation 32 for the content of local registers of notices and certificates, regulation 33 provides for the length of registration periods for approvers and registered building inspectors, regulation 34 sets out provision as to when copies of disciplinary sanctions issued against approvers must be sent to local authorities in Wales. Regulation 35 provides that where the Welsh Ministers make or revoke an order under section 58V of the 1984 Act they must as soon as reasonably practicable give a copy of the interim suspension order to each local authority in Wales where the Welsh Ministers consider that the suspected contravention is so serious that, if the Welsh Ministers determine that the contravention has occurred, they are likely to make an order under section 58U(2)(d) of the 1984 Act cancelling the person’s registration. Regulation 36 makes provisions as to the decisions in Part 2A of the 1984 Act which may be appealed. Regulation 36(1) sets out that, if an appeal is made, it must be made by way of complaint to the magistrates’ court. Regulation 36(2) sets out the grounds of appeal. Regulation 36(3) sets out the appeal time limit. Regulation 36(4) sets out the remedies available to the magistrates’ court on appeal.

Regulation 32 derives from regulation 30 of the AI Regulations. Regulation 34 derives from regulations 2 and 3 of the 2023 Regulations.

Regulation 34 derives from regulation 4 of the 2023 Regulations. Regulation 35 derives from regulation 5 of the 2023 Regulations. Regulation 36 derives from regulation 6 of the 2023 Regulations.

Part 8 of these Regulations contains miscellaneous provisions including a number of consequential amendments to other instruments, and the revocations mentioned above, transitional and savings provisions.

Regulation 37 derives from regulation 31 of the AI Regulations.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ and is published on www.gov.wales.