To report on the recent Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) audit of the Council’s Building Control function and to give an update following Members’ questions and resolution from the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 26 March 2026.

Further to minute 31 (26.3.26), the Committee received an update on the recent Building Safety Regulator (BSR) audit of the Council’s Building Control function.

It was reported that the first ever BSR review had been completed, and that this Council had no outstanding matters to address following changes and updates already carried out during that audit. 

It was confirmed that almost a year on that all control arrangements were fully operational and embedded without any issues occurring.  The service continued to grow and develop accounting for all policy and legalisation requirements/changes. The Building Safety Levy was the latest requirement that started in October.

The service now regularly completed required returns for the Building Safety Regulator and LABC (Local Authority Building Control).

No further BSR audit had been proposed by the Building Safety Regulator, and it was unlikely for a few years given their workload and number of authorities to cover. However, audit requirements from central government and membership of LABC were being complied with and completed regularly. 

The following learning could be shared with other Council department managers:-

Key Learning Points for Other Council Departmental Managers

1. Document what you do, not just what you know

-   Effective practices and processes must be formally documented, even where they were well understood by staff.

-   Auditors would assess documented evidence, not assumptions or established custom and practice.

-   Ensure policies, procedures, decision-making criteria, escalation routes and quality assurance arrangements were clearly recorded and accessible.

2. Regulatory expectations evolve

-   Compliance requirements might not always be fully clear until tested through audit or inspection.  This had been proven in Building Control’s need to define for itself the definition of closure of files.

-   Regulators might apply interpretations that went beyond an authority's understanding of statutory requirements.

-   Services should regularly review guidance and engage with sector peers to identify emerging expectations. This Council’s close working relationship with a number of neighbouring authorities had proven useful and helpful for this purpose.

3. Governance matters as much as operational performance

-   A service could be delivering good outcomes and still receive negative findings if governance arrangements were not sufficiently evidenced.

-   Audit scrutiny often focused on assurance, oversight and record-keeping rather than service outcomes alone.

4. Outsourcing does not outsource accountability

-   The Council remained responsible for compliance when work was undertaken by partners, consultants or other authorities.  Whilst this point had been known for the Building Control Audit the extent evidence from the outsourced body to prove compliance had been higher than expected despite being correct.

-   Formal oversight, quality checks and assurance arrangements should be in place for all outsourced services.

-   Expectations and responsibilities should be clearly documented, and this included the need for an expectations document specifically to capture a wide range of those issues being created to ensure it was evidenced and defined.

-   Do not assume that because another public body or specialist provider was undertaking work, that all regulatory requirements were automatically being met.

-   Verification and assurance processes were still required.

5. Record decisions as well as actions

-   It was not enough to retain advice from consultees or partners.

-   The rationale for accepting or rejecting advice should also be formally recorded, even if very obvious and it seemed pointless to record.

-   Clear audit trails reduced organisational risk and demonstrate sound decision-making.

6. Resource planning should be evidence-based

-   Services should regularly assess whether staffing levels and skills were sufficient to meet statutory obligations.

-   High workloads, specialist skill shortages and dependency on agency staff should be actively monitored and managed.

7. Open cases and legacy work require active management

-   Even where legislation limited formal closure options, organisations should develop documented approaches for managing inactive or historic cases.

-   Large backlogs create governance concerns even if they remain legally open.

8. Audits can be opportunities for improvement

-   Inspections often identified areas for strengthening governance rather than serious service failures. For example - now Building Control had a clear definition for closure of cases, from audit when not available in law, it had a clear rationale to charge for reopening cases potential. 

-   Findings should be used to improve resilience, consistency and organisational learning.

9. Invest in operational manuals and corporate knowledge

-   Reliance on experienced individuals created organisational risk.

-   Comprehensive manuals and documented procedures improved consistency, training, succession planning and resilience.

10. Continuous improvement should be evidenced

-   Being able to demonstrate how audit findings had been addressed was as important as resolving them.

-   Services should maintain action plans, evidence of implementation and clear records of improvements made.

It was felt that the principal lesson was that modern regulatory inspection increasingly focused on demonstrable governance, assurance and documented evidence rather than solely on operational outcomes. Services that were performing well operationally could still attract findings against them if procedures, oversight arrangements and decision-making records were not sufficiently documented and evidenced.

It was moved by Councillor Placey, seconded by Councillor Steady and:-

RESOLVED that –

(a)     the contents of this report (A.4) including the key learning points arising from the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) audit of the Council’s Building Control function be noted; and

(b)     updates on this matter be provided, going forward, as appropriate, within the Table of Outstanding Issues.