Commissioning strategy to be included in revisions to Part L

The increased emphasis on commissioning is one of the proposed changes to Part L of the Building Regulations for England and Wales, which deals with the conservation of fuel and power. It is part of a government drive to ensure a building’s actual performance matches its designer’s claims.

The proposed changes to Part L will be announced in a consultation paper due to be published by the government in the next few weeks.

The revisions to the regulation were drafted by Steve Irving of AECOM. Speaking at the CIBSE national conference last week, Irvine said: “To force designers to think about how a building will be commissioned the commissioning plan should be submitted with the plans submitted to Building Control at the start of a project”.

The proposed changes to Part L were due to come into effect in April 2010, but this target is now likely to be missed. A government spokesman said the April date “is becoming increasingly challenging and the revisions to the regulations could be put back to October 2010”.