Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control approvers and building inspectors Section 49: Plans Certificates Background
New section 50 of the Building Act 1984 enables a registered building control approver, at the request of a person intending to carry out building work, to issue a plans certificate to the local authority if they have inspected plans of work covered by an Initial Notice, and are satisfied that if the work is carried out in accordance with the plans, the work will comply with building regulations’ requirements. Under section 53 of the Act and Regulation 15 of the Building (Approved Inspectors) Regulations 2010, a plans certificate has the effect that a local authority cannot take action under sections 35 and 36 of the Building Act 1984 if the work covered by the certificate has been carried out in accordance with the plans.
	A local authority can reject a plans certificate only on prescribed grounds, which are set out in Schedules 2 and 3 of the Approved Inspectors Regulations. The form of a plans certificate is set out in Schedule 1 of the Approved Inspectors Regulations.
	Paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 to the Building Act 1984 provides that a public body’s notice plans certificate can be issued for work covered by a public body’s notice if the same conditions as apply to the issue of a plans certificate are met. A public body’ plans certificate is the same as for a plans certificate. The grounds for rejecting a public body’s notice plans certificate, and the form of a public body’s notice plans certificate, are set out in Schedules 1, 5 and 6 of the Approved Inspectors Regulations.
	The Government consulted in Summer 2020 on proposals that plans certificates should be mandated in certain circumstances. Following the consultation, the Government announced that it would proceed with these plans. See Part 3 of https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/970325/UPDATED_FINAL_Government_Response_to_Fire_Safety_Consultation.pdf .
Example
A person carries out building work on a building covered by the Fire Safety Order 2005. A registered building control approver is appointed as the building control body for the work. The registered building control approver has to check the plans of the work to ensure that if work is carried out in accordance with the plans it will comply with building regulations’ requirements and issue a plans certificate to the local authority using the prescribed form. However, not all the plans for the work are available to be checked at the point at which the plans certificate is issued. Therefore, although the registered building control approver considers the plans are sufficient to issue a plans certificate, they require further plans to be provided and this is set out on the plans certificate.