TIMBER
REGULATION, REGULATION, REGULATION
David Hopkins, CEO of the Timber Trade Federation, sees many policy strands converging around construction product safety.
T
he publication of the government’s post-Grenfell Building Safety Bill, which will now start to make its way through the legislative progress into law over the next 18 months, may seem a long distance from day-to-day merchanting. Yet it is likely to have a profound effect on the way we all market and sell construction products, and on the level of competence expected of people working in the many specialist areas of product supply, from taps and toilet seats to tiles and timber. To purposefully mis- quote Tony Blair, the construction products supply chain is facing regulation, regulation, regulation.
Construction is changing, and it needs to change, to make sure people’s safety with construction products when installed and in use is never again compromised. The Timber Trade Federation welcomes the Bill and its changing landscape. This will see the institution of a new Construction Products Regulator, set up within the Office for Product Safety and Standards, and a new Construction Products Competence Committee, set up alongside the new Building Safety Regulator at the Health & Safety Executive. TTF itself has become a registered signatory to the Building
a Safer Future Charter, and we encourage all those in the supply chain to investigate this for themselves.
The Construction Products Association is leading on the Building Safety Workstream within the Construction Leadership Council. Ensuring that construction products are ‘safe’ and will perform as expected is dependant on a number of factors. In terms of our timber supply sector, suppliers must provide products which ‘do what they say on the tin’. At TTF we are putting much energy into correct product descriptions, ranging from Chinese plywoods through to Use Class applications for preservative-treated timbers, the latter of which should now be featuring on documentation you receive from your TTF member supplier.
We are also encouraging all our members to benchmark their processes against those required by the Code for Construction Product Information, which demands information that is clear, accurate, unambiguous, up-to- date and ‘accessible’. CCPI also requires that information to be delivered by people who are provably-competent. The Code is making progress, following a final consultation this spring, and is being handed over to the body
which will run the scheme over the summer. Early adopters of the Code, able to help trial its licensing system, are being sought, with a view to the system being fully operational towards the end of this year.
The last but perhaps the most important element of product safety is the knowledge, skills, experience and behaviour of the people selling, marketing, installing and using construction products. Merchants with a timber training programme will be well equipped to demonstrate that their people are competent. In our part of the supply chain, having contributed the building blocks of what may eventually become a Publicly Available Standard on construction products competence, we are now re-examining the qualifications, competencies and ethical behaviours we expect of staff at the organisations amongst our membership, so we can continue to provide merchant sector customers with the best customer service. BMJ
August 2021
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 33
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