Part 3: Building Act 1984 Building control approvers and building inspectors Section 43: Transfer of approved inspectors’ functions to registered building control approvers Effect
Part 2 of the Building Act 1984 currently provides for Approved Inspectors (including organisations and individuals) to supervise building work. This section, and Schedule 4, makes a number of consequential amendments to provisions in the Building Act 1984, mainly in Part 2, so that references to Approved Inspectors are changed to become references to registered building control approvers. Current "Approved Inspectors" (i.e. organisations) wishing to undertake building control work will have to meet minimum criteria to become registered as building control approvers, becoming subject to the oversight of the regulatory authority (the Building Safety Regulator in relation to England, and the Welsh Ministers in relation to Wales).
	An individual who is currently an Approved Inspector could register:
as a registered building inspector (which would allow them to provide advice to others);
as a registered building control approver (which would allow them to undertake building control work under Part 2 of the Building Act 1984, but they would need to obtain advice from a registered building inspector before exercising prescribed functions); or
as both (which would allow them to undertake Part 2 work and rely on their own expert advice before exercising the prescribed functions).
	Local authorities will not have to register as building control approvers and will continue to perform their building control functions. This is because local authorities have a statutory duty to enforce building regulations in their area under section 91(2) of the Building Act 1984. It should be noted that under section 116 of the Building Act 1984 (as amended by section 45) where a local authority is failing, its building control functions can be transferred by the Secretary of State to another local authority.
	Schedule 4 amends references to "Approved Inspector" in the Building Act 1984 to "registered building control approver". Paragraph 12 of the Schedule amends an existing requirement for notification by the magistrates’ court. Currently under section 57(3) of the Building Act 1984 the court has to notify the approval body (ie CICAIR), after the amendment the court will need to notify the relevant authority (ie Building Safety Regulator in relation to England or Welsh Ministers in relation to Wales, or the body delegated).