Whilst the timetable for legislative change to make the use of the Compliance Plan Approach (CPA) mandatory for all High Risk Buildings (HRBs) is still to be finalised, Scottish Government Building Standards Division are keen for the approach to be implemented on a voluntary basis. To facilitate this, guidance was published for Verifiers in January 2026. Guidance is now also available for industry.
The national guidance has been developed by the Scottish Government’s Building Standards Division (BSD) in collaboration with an industry Working Group. It takes account of feedback that has been received from the CPA Early Adopter projects.
Since 1 April 2026, verifiers are applying the verifier guidance to all new build HRB warrant applications meeting the major work definition as set out in the guidance documents. This first phase will also apply to cladding remediation works requiring a building warrant, meeting a major work definition, being undertaken to a HRB.
Application of the guidance to all other major work to HRBs will start from 1 January 2027. Industry can start using this guidance following the same phasing. Through agreement with individual verifiers industry can apply the guidance to any project outside of this phased approach.
All representatives connected with the construction industry, from designers and main contractors, are urged to assist in this phase of introducing the CPA and provide feedback to BSD prior to it becoming mandatory. This way feedback, whether positive or negative, can be considered, and any good and beneficial suggestions can be incorporated into the new mandatory approach.
The Industry Guidance can be accessed here – Industry Guidance to Support Implementation of Phase 1 of the Compliance Plan Approach