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New CIOB guide to safety-critical building issues
CM Staff
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CIOB has issued a new guide to help identify safety-critical building issues.
The guide enables users to identify safety-critical elements that if omitted or installed incorrectly, could lead to failures that have the potential to result in loss of life. It also outlines systems that should be in place to ensure that such safety-critical elements are properly incorporated in the building.
Simon Pitchers, co-owner of structural engineering and design consultancy Craddys and a regular on TV and radio shows as a ‘building fails’ expert, is the author.
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He said: “It’s a practical short, simple guide for everyone involved in building, full of examples and avoiding management-speak. You can read the main body in 12 minutes and then be able to identify a safety-critical element and how to take the right level of care when you build it. It’s a small document – but we think it’s quite a big step towards industry culture change.”
The guide, jointly initiated by the CIOB and RIBA, has been produced with the intention of increasing awareness across all sections of the industry of the need to bring a rigorous and structured approach to the design, construction and inspection of elements identified as potentially safety-critical.
It focuses on elements frequently found to be defective and carry a high risk to building users. Its foreword says: “By successfully addressing these systemic issues, the industry would be taking a major step forward in both ensuring the safety of users in the buildings we produce and in restoring public confidence in our industry, an industry in which we can then all justifiably be proud to work.”
The January/February 2026 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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