The Building Standards (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1993

Statutory Instruments

1993 No. 1457 (S.191)

BUILDING AND BUILDINGS

The Building Standards (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1993

Made

8th June 1993

Laid before Parliament

17th June 1993

Coming into force

23rd July 1993

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 3, 24(1) and 29(1) of, and Schedule 4 to, the Building (Scotland) Act 1959((1)) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf and, as required by section 3(6) of that Act((2)), having consulted the Building Standards Advisory Committee and such other bodies as appear to him to be representative of the interests concerned, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Building Standards (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1993 and shall come into force on 23rd July 1993.

Amendment of the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990

2.—(1) The Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990((3)) shall be amended in accordance with the following paragraphs.

(2) In regulation 2(1) (interpretation) for the definition of “Technical Standards” there shall be substituted the following:–

““Technical Standards” means the Technical Standards for compliance with the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990 issued by the Scottish Office in October 1990, as amended by the substitute pages issued by the Scottish Office in and dated July 1993;”.

(3) In regulation 13 (means of escape from fire and facilities for fire-fighting)–

(a) for the heading there shall be substituted “Means of escape from fire, facilities for fire-fighting and means of warning of fire in dwellings”, and

(b) after paragraph (1) there shall be inserted the following paragraph:–

“(1A) Every dwelling shall be provided with adequate means of warning the occupants of an outbreak of fire.”.

Transitional provisions

3.  In relation to–

(a) an application for a warrant for the construction or change of use of a building which was made before the date of coming into force of these Regulations;

(b) an application for the extension of the period of validity or the amendment of the terms of such a warrant granted at any time,

the building standards regulations applicable to the building in question shall be those in force at the time the application for warrant was made and any reference in the Act to building standards regulations shall be construed accordingly.

James Douglas-Hamilton

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office

St. Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

8th June 1993

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990 by introducing a requirement for the provision in dwellings of adequate means of warning of an outbreak of fire (smoke alarms). Amendment of the definition of “Technical Standards” at regulation 2(2) gives effect, through the substitute pages mentioned therein, to this new requirement and to a number of other minor changes being made to the standards to remove inconsistencies and for clarification purposes.

The Regulations come into force on 23rd July 1993 but do not apply to any construction or change of use of a building where application for warrant was made before that date.

Copies of the Technical Standards supporting the 1990 Regulations as amended by these Regulations are available from Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

(1)

1959 c. 24; section 3(2) and (3) were amended by the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (c. 37) (“the 1974 Act”), Schedule 7, paragraphs 1(a) and 1(b) respectively; section 3(4) was amended by the Housing (Scotland) Act 1986 (c. 65), section 19(2); section 3(7) was inserted by the 1974 Act, Schedule 7, paragraph 1(c); section 29(1) contains a definition of “prescribed” relevant to the exercise of the statutory powers under which these Regulations are made.

(2)

Section 3(6) was substituted by the Building (Scotland) Act 1970 (c. 38), section 1.

(3)

S.I. 1990/2179.