Building consent authority (BCA) accreditation and registration
On this page
- The BCA scheme
- Accreditation
- Accreditation guidance and updates
- Accreditation as a BCA
- Registration as a BCA
The BCA scheme
Objectives/requirements
The BCA accreditation and registration scheme is among a suite of Building Act 2004 reforms designed to help improve the control of, and encourage better practice and performance in, building design, regulatory building control and building construction.
The other key reforms are the Licensed Building Practitioner Scheme, a product certification scheme and a review of the Building Code.
The BCA scheme requires that, by 31 March 2009, any territorial authority or regional authority (council) carrying out building consent, inspection and approval work be accredited by a building consent accreditation body (International Accreditation New Zealand [IANZ]) against the standards and criteria in the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006. The council must then be registered by the Department of Building and Housing against the standards and criteria in the Building (Registration of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2007
.
The accreditation and registration of BCAs will:
- help assure the public of the quality of building controls
- help promote consistent, standardised and ongoing good quality practice in building control
- help identify good building control practice and provide mechanisms for sharing this information throughout the sector and with other interested parties
- help foster continuous improvement in building controls at national and local level
- help ensure better technical capabilities and resourcing of building controls
- provide an impetus for much closer and more formal relationships among BCAs, and between BCAs and technical consultants/contractors
- provide incentives for improving performance and raising standards in building control.
International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) has been appointed by the Chief Executive of the Department of Building and Housing as the building consent accreditation body under section 248 of the Building Act 2004.
Councils may contract others to undertake some or all of their BCA functions, but this does not relieve them of the requirement to be accredited and registered.
Councils not wishing to be accredited and registered as a BCA can transfer their functions to another accredited and registered council BCA. More information on this is available from the contacts listed below.
Private BCAs
The Building Act also enables private organisations to seek accreditation and registration as BCAs, but places considerable emphasis on ensuring adequate consumer protection arrangements before a private organisation may be registered.
Accreditation re-assessments
The Building Act requires accredited councils or private BCAs to undergo re-assessment for accreditation. The frequency of re-assessments is set by the Chief Executive of the Department by notice in the New Zealand Gazette. The current notice, published on 8 March 2007, requires reassessment every 2 years. Read the current notice, No.27, March 2007
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Accreditation
Objective
Accreditation is used by many professions to help ensure organisations and individuals can, and do, perform their duties to a particular standard.
Accreditation involves an independent accreditation body – International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) in the case of the BCA scheme - assessing technical competencies, resources, equipment, procedures, systems and processes to ensure they are adequate, are being followed and that identified outcomes are being achieved.
Standards and criteria for BCA accreditation
The standards and criteria prescribed in the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006 were developed through extensive consultation with the sector over several years. They aim to help ensure improved performance and better practice and consistency in building control work.
The standards are outcome-focused and performance-based, which means that the means of achieving them can vary, depending on the BCA’s circumstances, size, and the volume and type of work undertaken. There is no ‘one size fits all’.
For example, a robust record-keeping system might be a multi-million dollar digital scanning IT system in one BCA and a manual filing cabinet system in another. Provided the records are complete, accurate, secure, accessible and easily retrievable, both systems can comply with the accreditation standards.
Focus of standards
The standards focus on four functional areas, with different dates by which they must be met:
| Functional area |
Timeframe |
| Formal, documented policies, systems, processes and procedures |
By 31 March 2008 |
| Skills and resources |
By 31 March 2009 |
| Quality assurance systems |
By November 2010 |
| Staff qualifications |
By November 2013 |
Formal, documented policies, systems, processes and procedures
Documented policies, systems, processes, and procedures help BCAs manage the way they operate, make compliance assessments and decisions, manage risk and achieve better consistency and identified outcomes. The standards will help BCAs monitor, review and continuously improve their performance. Sound record-keeping and information-storage practices are also essential in the building control environment. These provide an audit trail of how a BCA processes consent applications, undertakes inspections and issues code compliance certificates, the decisions they make and the rationale for those decisions.
The required policies, systems, processes and procedures cover statutory responsibilities and administrative and organisational activities that do not have a statutory basis, but which affect building control functions and outcomes - for example, the way BCAs assess alternative solutions and allocate work to building control staff.
Skills and resources
BCAs need the skills and resources to consistently meet statutory building control responsibilities and undertake the volume and nature of work involved.
Skilled and experienced internal or external (contract) resources help a BCA discharge its statutory obligations effectively. Having sufficient skills, knowledge and expertise (competencies) and resources (sufficient staff or contractors) helps ensure buildings comply with relevant legislation and are fit for purpose.
The accreditation standards will ensure appropriate monitoring and review mechanisms to help identify skills, knowledge and expertise requirements. The right skills and experience to undertake allocated work means building controls staff can work within the limits of their technical competence and experience. Training and professional development plans are integral to ensuring BCAs have appropriate skills and expertise, and to maintaining the level of knowledge needed to perform competently.
Quality assurance systems
A sound quality assurance system strengthens decision-making and leads to better quality and greater consistency in compliance and performance of regulatory building control functions.
The standards require BCAs to document, implement and maintain an effective quality assurance system by 2010. This includes organisational support, so that the system can be applied consistently across all building control functions.
Staff qualifications
Qualifications help develop a viable career path for building officials and provide independent assessment of a person’s competency in a particular area. Qualifications can help a BCA assess its personnel to demonstrate organisational competence. This long-term standard will improve both capacity and capability in the building control sector.
By 2013, building officials will need a nationally recognised qualification in building control or a recognised international equivalent.
The sector, with support from the Department, is currently developing a national qualification in building control.
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Accreditation guidance and updates
Specific accreditation guidance information has been published for councils, including:
The Department also publishes an email only update - Building Controls Update - and publishes news about the scheme in its overall building sector publication Codewords.
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Accreditation as a BCA
Process
The accreditation process has various steps:
- Optional self-assessment of internal processes and procedures against accreditation standards and criteria.
- Submission to IANZ of application for accreditation [PDF 72 KB, 3 pages]
- Desk-based documentation review by IANZ of the applicant’s systems, policies, processes and procedures to check compliance with accreditation standards and criteria. IANZ advises the applicant of the outcome of the assessment and, as appropriate, discusses any corrective actions or recommendations
- Consideration by IANZ and the applicant of the need for an on-site pre-assessment meeting to confirm that it is appropriate to proceed with a full on-site assessment
- Further corrective actions or recommendations may be made, if such a meeting occurs
- Full on-site assessment by IANZ, including a team of technical experts, advising the applicant of any further corrective actions and recommendations, with a formal report confirming those matters
- Corrective actions addressed by the applicant to IANZ’s satisfaction; IANZ completes its accreditation peer review and approval process.
* The time taken for these processes is driven by the level of priority each building consent authority gives the process, in terms of resources and response times. At present it is taking many councils several months to undertake the necessary work to resolve issues and build sufficient evidence of effective implementation to address their corrective actions. Sufficient time for this step needs to be factored into councils’ accreditation project plans.
** This process, including an independent professional advisory committee review, will usually take several weeks.
Registration as a BCA
Standards and criteria
Having been accredited as a BCA, an organisation may apply to the Chief Executive of the Department of Building and Housing to be registered as such.
The Building Act 2004 required all territorial and regional authorities to submit a registration application by May 2006. All 85 territorial and regional authorities completed this application.
Regulations are in place prescribing building consent authority registration standards and criteria, registration application forms and the application fee payable by any private organisation seeking registration as a building consent authority. The regulations are available online
The registration process for council building consent authorities involves the Department:
- checking and updating general information it already holds, and collecting any necessary additional information (eg, a copy of a valid accreditation certificate)
- issuing a notice of registration and entering the name and other details of the registered authority on the register of building consent authorities.
Read the Guidelines on registration of private organisations as Building Consent Authorities [PDF 189 KB, 16 pages]
Registration fees
The regulations do not prescribe fees for councils to be registered. This is because:
- councils have a statutory requirement to provide building control services
- they have already lodged their initial registration application
- the estimated average cost of registering each council will be less than $250 and the Department can absorb the estimated $21,000 total cost of their registration.
The regulations prescribe a registration fee for private organisations of $5570 (GST exclusive). This reflects the costs to the Department of checking the greater amount of information required from private applicants, including assessing how they will meet the Building Act requirement that they have adequate means to meet any civil liabilities arising from their building consent authority functions.
‘Adequate means’ requirements
Private organisations seeking registration as building consent authorities will also be required to satisfy the Department that they have ‘adequate means’ to meet any civil liabilities arising from their building control work. Councils already have the resources to meet civil liabilities.
Regulations on what will constitute ‘adequate means’ are expected to be in place in early 2008. They will prescribe the minimum terms and conditions for insurance policies for private building consent authorities.
Policy proposals for the regulations are for the extent of insurance cover to be based on the total value of building projects for which the private building consent authority undertook building control functions. The Department could also consider the use of a guarantor or bond when assessing whether it was satisfied a private organisation had adequate means.
The insurance requirements would cover scenarios such as a building consent or code compliance certificate being issued for a building that does not comply with the Building Code; a building failure such as a weathertightness failure causing decay; or negligence in the inspection of a building and the issuing of a code compliance certificate. Claims would have to be made within 10 years of the act or omission on which the proceedings were based.
Further information on adequate means may be found in the following Department publications:
Revocation of registration
The Chief Executive of the Department of Building and Housing has the power to suspend or revoke the registration of a private BCA if the BCA no longer meets registration criteria. Accreditation is a prerequisite for registration.
If a territorial or regional authority BCA is not meeting the registration criteria, the Chief Executive must recommend to the Minister for Building and Construction that the Minister appoint one or more people to act in the place of that BCA in relation to all or any of its functions.
Contacts
General inquiries
For general enquiries about the building consent authority accreditation and registration scheme, please contact one of the following people at the Department.
Consent Authority Capability and Performance Group
Department of Building and Housing
PO Box 10-729
Wellington
Telephone: 0800 242 243
Peter Sparrow
Senior Advisor Performance Monitoring & Review
peter.sparrow@dbh.govt.nz
Malcolm MacMillan
Manager, Consent Authority Capability and Performance Group
malcolm.macmillan@dbh.govt.nz
For more information about the BCA accreditation and registration scheme please contact:
Consent Authority Capability and Performance Group
Department of Building and Housing
Level 6, 86 Customhouse Quay
PO Box 10-729, Wellington
0800 242 243
Accreditation inquiries
For specific enquiries about making an application for accreditation, the accreditation assessment process, or corrective action requests, and for questions about the standards and criteria for accreditation, please contact:
International Accreditation New Zealand
Private Bag 28-908, Remuera, Auckland
(09) 525 6655
Adrienne Woollard
Programme Manager
Inspection Body Accreditation
awoollard@ianz.govt.nz
David Sidwell
Accreditation Officer
dsidwell@ianz.govt.nz