Slipping standards!!!!!

[Dinnertime Dave]

New job and new responsibilities.

Managed to get out of social housing and moved into retail.  Part of the role includes checking plans for new shop design for compliance. The first batch of 10 arrive, 4 of these are in shopping centres with a rear exit on a shared service corridor. Oh, one of the shops is in Scotland.

The shops are over 25 square metres with no alternative exit from the retail area. (The Scottish shop does)
None of the shops have lobbied rear exit into the shared service corridor. (The Scottish shop does)
Fire alarms not linked to the centre managerment suite. (Yes, you guess it the Scottish shop is).

Made my comments and the AI covering the English shops reply is "They don't need any of those provisions as they have sprinklers! Also, the fire service didn't say they were needed.

Outcome - New employer thinks I haven't got a clue.  
Question - Have standard slipped so far in the last 4 years?

[colin todd]

Yes but not in Scotland.

[nearlythere]

New job and new responsibilities.

Managed to get out of social housing and moved into retail.  Part of the role includes checking plans for new shop design for compliance. The first batch of 10 arrive, 4 of these are in shopping centres with a rear exit on a shared service corridor. Oh, one of the shops is in Scotland.

The shops are over 25 square metres with no alternative exit from the retail area. (The Scottish shop does)
None of the shops have lobbied rear exit into the shared service corridor. (The Scottish shop does)
Fire alarms not linked to the centre managerment suite. (Yes, you guess it the Scottish shop is).

Made my comments and the AI covering the English shops reply is "They don't need any of those provisions as they have sprinklers! Also, the fire service didn't say they were needed.

Outcome - New employer thinks I haven't got a clue.  
Question - Have standard slipped so far in the last 4 years?

The standards haven't slipped. Those who don't use them have.

[lyledunn]

Does Building Control in Scotland recognise BS9999 2017 as a means of compliance with their Building Regulations?

[Fishy]

Does Building Control in Scotland recognise BS9999 2017 as a means of compliance with their Building Regulations?

Reluctantly, in my experience...

[Clevelandfire 3]

Yes but not in Scotland.

Are you Scottish by chance Mr McTodd? Not sure you have ever mentioned it.

Nope standards have not slipped but unfortunately the people that interpret them are very slippy quack quack ooops

[AnthonyB]

I'd agree it's not the standards or benchmarks but those involved in them. It's not particular group though - from design, build and approval through to risk assessors and enforcers, it's getting worse.

FRAs are seemingly more and more quick tickbox audits getting quicker and smaller and more generic all the time, although no doubt the statistics would indicate it's not having an adverse effect....yet