Government plans to address gaps in the construction products regime have been branded a \u201creal disappointment\u201d by one of the experts who led the independent review into the sector\u2019s regulation.<\/p>\n
Former government chief construction adviser Paul Morrell warned that the measures contained in the construction products green paper would fail to prevent unsafe products reaching the market.<\/p>\n
The green paper was recently launched<\/a> as part of the government\u2019s response to the recommendations of the inquiry into the fire at Grenfell Tower eight years ago, which led the deaths of 72 people.<\/p>\n The paper also served as a formal response to the independent review of construction product regulations, published almost two years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morrell, who co-led the review with Annaliese Day KC, concluded at the time that enforcement of the existing regulations had been \u201calmost totally non-existent\u201d.<\/p>\n Writing exclusively for CN<\/em><\/a>, Morrell said he had been keen to see whether, two years on, the government had \u201cfound a way through the maze\u201d of the construction product testing regime.<\/p>\n \u201cSpoiler alert: on the evidence of the green paper, it hasn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed, the lack of any obvious development of the thinking expounded in the review or of any coherent overarching strategy that will lead to an effective regime to ensure that only safe products make it onto the market is a real disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that almost three years after the Building Safety Act passed into law, the duties owed by those who manufactured and marketed construction products were still unknown.<\/p>\n The decision to effectively grant EU products carrying the CE mark a free pass for importation into the UK for the foreseeable future was legitimate and probably practical, he said.<\/p>\n However, the green paper itself accepted that the current regime did not foster a sufficient focus on safety and failed to provide key safety information to those selecting and using products or the necessary assurance that products were safe, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this caveat is not reflected in many of the paper\u2019s proposals,\u201d said Morrell.<\/p>\n He also drew attention to significant challenges such as the lack of control over the operation and oversight of the testing and assessment process where it was conducted in the EU.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven these structural difficulties, some of the questions asked in the green paper frankly sound like a desperate cry for help \u2013 for example, in asking the industry how we might impose additional restrictions on the sale of products coming from the EU while also accepting CE marking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is potentially a matter of complex law rather than of construction practice, and the answer will also depend\u2026on whether there is any intention on the part of the government to seek a mutual recognition agreement with the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n Government plans to address gaps in the construction products regime have been branded a \u201creal disappointment\u201d by one of the experts who led the independent review into the sector\u2019s regulation. Former government chief construction adviser Paul Morrell warned that the measures contained in the construction products green paper would fail to prevent unsafe products reaching …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130832,"featured_media":517710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[565,57171],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\nRead the full article by Paul Morrell<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"