At the end of May 2025, the Industry Competence Committee (ICC), published its first annual report, setting out the strategic objectives and priorities for its work.
The ICC was established in September 2023 in response to sections within both the Building Safety Act 2022 the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It assists Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in its duty within the Building Safety Act 2022 to facilitate the improvement in competence of industry and building inspectors.
The ICC’s role is to advise both the built environment sector and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the Building Safety Regulator on matters of competence. Its functions include advice and monitoring of activity within the built environment around:
The publication of the ICC’s annual report marks its first full year of operation. Unsurprisingly, competence improvement is high on the agenda for its future focus.
Over the last 12 months it has established the foundations for its work, agreed clear strategic objectives and established year 1 workplan, including strategic initiatives, an outline communications strategy and industry engagement plans.
Two formal working groups were also established: the Building Control Working Group (BCWG) and the Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG).
In the Executive Summary from the annual report, ICC chair Jon Vanstone, and Sandra Ashcroft, vice-chair, make clear that competence is a key focus of the work over the next 12 months, saying: “As chair and vice-chair, we meet regularly with the chief inspector of buildings to provide evidence-based advice to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in a number of areas, drawing on data and members’ expertise. We see this as essential to ensuring that in the future there will be appropriate competence, at all levels throughout the built environment.
“An important step towards this objective has been to bring the Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) into the ICC as an integral part in creating a shared focus and perspective on improving competence across the industry.
“Industry engagement will be an important activity for BSR over the next year, and this aligns with the ICC’s objective to set expectations for industry and increase awareness of competence requirements.”
Its future focus is on engaging with industry to drive competence improvement for the safe delivery of buildings.
The ICC has the following strategic objectives:
Improving, demonstrating and documenting competence within the construction in industry is essential in delivering safe buildings and reducing risks to the health, safety and welfare of residents.
Industry engagement and developing guidance on ‘what good looks like’ are key activity for the ICC and the BSR in 2025/2025.
The construction industry needs to understand that the ICC is a conduit to thought and feelings about how the Building Safety Act is being implemented and considered.
Across the next year, the ICC wants the construction industry to commit to:
The ICC does recognise that recognises this is an ambitious ask for industry and is committed to supporting by setting expectations and sharing clear principles on how individual competence could be demonstrated and how organisations could manage this.
It is also committed to raising awareness and engaging with industry on legal requirements for competence to help industry understand what good looks like, as well as assisting industry in creating clear competence pathways and frameworks.
Mark Johnston, cofounder and director of Cube explains: “Over the last 12 months we’ve has trained over 1,000 construction management professionals, working across a range of disciplines within the built environment.
“In addition to Building Safety Act training, we’ve been supporting tier 1 construction businesses and regional contractors by facilitating solutions to help them understand their competency capability and duty holder responsibilities, through project reviews and process improvement plans.
“Added to that, we are part of the industry working group that is feeding into the ICC. We can take real life industry examples and practical experiences and directly inform the working groups that are shaping the competency frameworks and guidance to help inform the solutions.”
The ICC is seeking feedback from built environment professionals on its work to set expectations for industry, you can find out more here.
We’re also keen to chat with anyone about way to improve competence and get feedback on what our industry needs to understand around demonstrating competence, get in touch today at hello@cube-cc.co.uk.