Changes to the Scottish Technical Standards

To summarise, the changes cover the following sections:

Section 0 (General)

• Regulation 8 relating to durability, workmanship and fitness of materials is amended to include a hotel, guest house, boarding house or hostel as a defined ‘relevant building’ with a storey at a height of 11 metres or more;
• Regulation 8 is amended to include additional exceptions (solar shading device components & balcony floor layer) to the ban on the use of combustible materials in external wall cladding systems on defined ‘relevant buildings’ with a storey at a height of 11 metres or more;
• Amendment of Schedule 5 to Regulation 9 relating to building standards applicable to design and construction for Simon and Richard’s Law mandating the installation of an automatic fire suppression system for the conversion of a traditionally constructed building to hotel use; and

Section 2 (Fire)

• Amendment to building standard 2.15 relating to Simon and Richard’s Law, mandating the installation of an automatic fire suppression system for the conversion of a traditionally constructed building to hotel use. These changes form part of the output from the Building and Fire Safety Expert Working Group and measures proposed within the 2024/25 consultation on the Cameron House Hotel recommendations and fire safety topics.

 Section 3 (Environment)

• New guidance has been provided to demonstrate compliance with mandatory standard 3.3 for flooding and groundwater. This guidance provides detailed information on construction methods for buildings constructed in areas of high floor risk.

Section 4 (Safety)

• New guidance has been provided under mandatory standard 4.1 for access to buildings. This provides additional guidance on the positioning of a letterplate where included in a doorset at an accessible entrance.

Appendix A (Defined Terms)

• Amendment to “Relevant building” list to include hotels, hostels, boarding houses and guest houses.

The link to the new standards can be found here.