Registered building inspector classes and what each covers
The Building Safety Act put building control competence on a statutory footing. Class alone does not tell you what an inspector may work on, because categories limit it further.
Building control competence in England is now a statutory matter. The Building Safety Act 2022 amended the Building Act 1984 to create registers of building inspectors and of building control approvers, held by the Building Safety Regulator within the Health and Safety Executive, and it made it unlawful for an unregistered person to carry out building control functions. The registered building inspector classes determine what an individual may work on, and an appointment outside a person's registration is a problem for the project as well as for the inspector.
Architects and agents feel this mainly at two points: choosing who to appoint, and discovering mid-project that the person appointed cannot sign off what has been built.
Why competence was put on a statutory footing
The regime came out of the review that followed the Grenfell Tower fire, which found that building control was fragmented, that competence varied and that nobody could be sure who was qualified to assess what. The response was a register with defined classes, a code of conduct, and an offence for carrying out restricted building control activities without the right registration.
The registers opened during the transition and the hard requirement took effect in 2024, replacing the previous approved inspector model with registered building control approvers. Both the private sector and local authority building control teams are covered: an individual inspector in a council team needs to be registered in the same way as one in a private firm.
For higher-risk buildings, which are broadly those of at least 18 metres or seven storeys containing at least two residential units, the Building Safety Regulator itself is the building control authority. There is no choice of provider on those projects, which is a change that catches developers who assumed they could appoint privately.
The classes and what each covers
There are four classes of registered building inspector, and they run from trainee through to a technical management level.
- Class 1 is a trainee, working under supervision and not able to carry out restricted activities independently.
- Class 2 is a building inspector, competent to carry out building control activities on buildings other than higher-risk buildings, within the categories on that person's registration.
- Class 3 is a specialist building inspector, covering more complex work including higher-risk buildings, again within the registered categories.
- Class 4 covers technical management, the oversight and quality assurance role rather than day-to-day site work.
The class on its own does not tell you what a person can do. Registration is further limited by the categories of activity and of building recorded against the individual, so two Class 2 inspectors may have different permitted scopes. Plan assessment and site inspection are treated as different activities, which means the person who assessed your drawings may not be the person entitled to inspect the work.
Take the categories from the register rather than from a business card. The Building Safety Regulator publishes the register and the current class and category structure, and that structure has been refined since launch.
Approvers against local authority teams
A registered building control approver is the organisation. It replaced the approved inspector and it has to be registered with the regulator, carry the required insurance and operate under the code of conduct. Its individual inspectors must each hold their own registration.
Local authority building control is not a registered building control approver, because its statutory function comes from elsewhere, but its inspectors are registered individuals subject to the same competence requirements and code.
The practical differences that remain are about service rather than competence: which body can be appointed on a higher-risk building, whether an initial notice is required, how enforcement is handled if things go wrong, and how responsive the team is. Competence is no longer the distinguishing factor, which is the point of the reform.
Checking a registration before appointing
Four checks, and they take minutes.
- Look the individual up on the register and confirm the class held.
- Read the categories of activity and building type against the name, and compare them with what your project actually is.
- Check the registration is current and note the expiry.
- For a private appointment, confirm the organisation is a registered building control approver and ask for evidence of the required insurance.
Then record the results. A file note of the checks made, with dates, is worth having if a question arises later about whether the appointment was proper.
Where the project involves a Fire Safety Strategy or other fire-engineering input, that is a separate competence question again. A registered building inspector assesses compliance; the fire engineer designs the strategy, and neither substitutes for the other.
Work outside a registered class
Carrying out restricted building control activities without the appropriate registration is an offence, and it also exposes the project. Work assessed or inspected by someone not entitled to do it may need to be revisited, and on a partially completed building that can mean opening up.
The risk is highest in two situations. On a project that grows during design, from an ordinary building into a higher-risk building because a storey was added, the inspector appointed at the outset may no longer be entitled to act. And on a project where the original inspector leaves the firm, the replacement's registration has to be checked rather than assumed.
Ask, in the appointment, for written notice of any change of individual inspector, and for confirmation that the replacement's registration covers the work.
Transition arrangements and live projects
Projects that had initial notices or full plans applications in place before the changeover were dealt with under transitional provisions with their own deadlines, and those have largely worked through. Anything still relying on them should be checked against the current position rather than against the arrangements as they were announced, because the dates were revised.
If you are inheriting a long-running project, establish who the building control body is now, whether the original notice remains valid, and whether the work completed has been inspected by a properly registered individual.
How this interacts with planning
Two connections matter to the planning side of a project.
The first is Planning Gateway One. For a relevant building, a Fire Statement has to accompany the planning application, prepared by someone with the necessary fire-engineering competence, and the Health and Safety Executive is a statutory consultee at that stage. That is a planning requirement, decided before building control engagement, and it is legally required rather than advisable.
The second is the boundary between the two regimes. Planning conditions should not duplicate controls exercised under the Building Regulations, because a condition has to be necessary and relevant to planning. So a condition requiring compliance with an Approved Document is generally objectionable, and an officer who proposes one should be asked to reconsider.
Where building control input forces a design change after permission, the change has to be managed on the planning side as well, either as a non-material amendment under section 96A or as a variation under section 73. A revised staircase arrangement or an added external escape route is a planning change even when it was driven by building control.
And discharge of a planning condition is not building control approval. They are separate consents on separate timetables, and a scheme can hold one without the other.
For the statutory competence rules that run across other disciplines, see what competent person means in planning legislation. Independent review of a draft can be arranged through the professional directory. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. This is general guidance rather than legal advice, so check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
What are the four classes of registered building inspector?
Class 1 is a trainee working under supervision, Class 2 a building inspector for buildings other than higher-risk buildings, Class 3 a specialist covering more complex work including higher-risk buildings, and Class 4 a technical management role. Each individual's registration also records categories of activity and building type that limit the scope further.
Does the class tell me what an inspector can work on?
Not by itself. Registration records categories of activity and of building against the individual, so two inspectors in the same class can have different permitted scopes. Plan assessment and site inspection are separate activities, which means the person who checked the drawings may not be entitled to inspect the work on site.
Can I appoint a private building control body on a tall residential building?
No. For higher-risk buildings, broadly those of at least 18 metres or seven storeys with at least two residential units, the Building Safety Regulator is the building control authority. There is no choice of provider, which surprises developers who assumed a private appointment remained available on those projects.
What happens if work is inspected by someone outside their registration?
Carrying out restricted building control activities without the right registration is an offence, and the project is exposed too. Work assessed or inspected by someone not entitled to do it may have to be revisited, which on a partly built structure can mean opening up. Check registrations again whenever the individual inspector changes.
How does this affect planning conditions?
Planning conditions should not duplicate controls exercised under the Building Regulations, so a condition requiring compliance with an Approved Document is generally objectionable. Where building control input forces a design change after permission, that change still needs handling on the planning side, through a non-material amendment or a section 73 variation.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.