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Building Standards Advisory Committee
05/03/2008
Seven new members have been appointed to the Building Standards Advisory Committee, it was announced today.
Details of the new members are as follows:
- Mr Kevin Burnett is an Associate Director with Mott MacDonald Ltd. and has over 18 years experience of working within the Scottish construction industry. He is a Chartered Member of both The Institution of Civil Engineers and The Institution of Structural Engineers and is an Approved Certifier of Design for Building Structures.
- Mr Malcolm MacLeod is the Scottish Director of NHBC (National House Building Council), a Chartered Building Surveyor, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, and a Chartered Environmentalist. He is immediate past Chairman of the Scottish Branch of the Chartered Institute of Building.
- Ms Lori McElroy is Project Director of Sust. at The Lighthouse. She has a background in environmental engineering, and has been active in the provision of energy and sustainability support across the design professions for the last 25 years both in practice and in education. She is immediate past Chair of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers - Scottish Region.
- Mr Nick Montgomery is a Chartered Fire Engineer and a specialist fire engineering consultant. He has extensive knowledge of fire safety in the design of buildings through his experience with many major building projects in Scotland. He is Technical Director at Jeremy Gardner Associates and heads up their Edinburgh office.
- Mr Len Murray is a local authority building standards manager and has been a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for some twenty years. He possesses extensive knowledge of building standards having worked in local government for over 30 years.
- Mr Gordon Souter is a Chartered Architectural Technologist with almost 23 years experience in the architectural field, the last 14 within the house building industry. He is currently a member of the Executive Board and Conduct Committee of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists and is also a member of Homes for Scotland Sub-Group which deals with building standards and sustainability.
- Scott Restrick is the Technical & Training Manager for Energy Action Scotland; he is a recognised trainer and examiner for the National Home Energy Rating scheme and has been involved in providing training and support to building standards surveyors and building professionals on Section 6: Energy, and energy efficient building design and refurbishment.
The appointments have been made for a period of two years only, from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009 and have been made to meet statutory requirements and ensure that the Committee is quorate. However, the Committee is to be abolished in line with the Government's approach to reducing the number of Advisory Bodies established to advise Scottish Ministers. Expert advice on building standards will be obtained in other ways. This change requires legislation and in the interim, the Committee is required to discharge its function in line with the legislation creating the body.
These posts are unpaid, other than the reimbursement of necessary travelling expenses, and require the members to attend an average of 3 main Committee meetings each year. Members may also become involved in additional, technical working groups related to the development of new building standards.
The remit of the Committee is set out in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and is essentially to advise Scottish Ministers on the exercise of their functions under the Act; keep under review the operation of regulations under the Act and make recommendations to Ministers in connection with the regulations. The Committee may also advise Ministers on any question relating to their functions under the Act which Ministers may refer to the Committee. The Committee is intended to provide a technical input to proposals for regulations, but with a strong remit to consider both the potential effects of the legislation and its interaction with related legislation.
These Ministerial public appointments were made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland's Code of Practice.
All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees' political activity (if there is any to be declared) to be made public. No members declared any Political Activity and no members apart from Lori McElroy, who is a board member of Architecture+Design Scotland and receives no remuneration, have any other Ministerial appointments.