Postponement of entry into force of the Quality Assurance Act

It will not be surprising that after the postponement of the Environment Act, Minister Ollongren has now announced that the Quality Assurance for Construction Act will also not come into effect on January 1, 2021. Minister Ollongren formally informed the House of Representatives about this in a letter dated April 17, 2020. She wants to announce the final entry into force date before the summer.

The administrative agreement

The minister indicates in her letter that the Quality Assurance for Construction Act will come into effect later, because the Environment Act has also been delayed. She writes that the two laws have a strong mutual relationship, both in terms of legislation and the way in which digital support is facilitated. The administrative agreement concluded with the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) therefore states that the intended date of entry into force of the Construction Quality Assurance Act is the same as that of the Environment Act, according to Minister Ollongren.

No rapid implementation of the Quality Assurance Act

What Minister Ollongren writes here in her letter of April 17, 2020 is not entirely correct. Indeed, the administrative agreement of January 17, 2019 states that the intended entry into force is at the same time as the Environmental Act. However, this is not because the laws have a strong mutual relationship, but because the VNG did not want a rapid introduction of the quality assurance system. The VNG received all kinds of guarantees in the administrative agreement that the municipalities will continue to play a significant role in the quality assurance system. Partly because of this support from the VNG, the Quality Assurance for Building Act was adopted by the Senate on May 14, 2019.

Additional terms

The administrative agreement states that the Quality Assurance for Building Act will not come into force before the Environmental Act. However, the quality assurance system for consequence class 1 (including ground-level homes and simple commercial buildings of a maximum of two floors) will not come into effect until additional conditions have been met. Sufficient confidence in the system is required after running pilot projects. There must also be sufficient (private) quality assurance. The admission organization for construction quality assurance must have been established. And the ICT at the government and the municipalities must be in order.

No strong mutual correlation

The Quality Assurance for Construction Act contains amendments to the current Environmental Law General Provisions Act (Wabo) and not to the Environmental Act. This law does not take this into account the cut of the environmental permit for construction under the Environmental Act. To this extent, the two laws are not strongly interrelated. In fact, an amendment to the Environmental Act is necessary to include the quality assurance system. Of course, it is undesirable to implement multiple system changes in quick succession.

Background of subordinate regulations

The Quality Assurance for Construction Act should be elaborated at a lower legal level. In an order in council. For example, the requirements for the risk assessment for the notification obligation and the requirements for the competent authority file for the completion notification are not included in the law itself.

Minister Ollongren writes in her letter of April 17, 2020 that she will soon send the draft of the order in council to the Chambers of the States General. An earlier version had already been sent as the Quality Assurance Decree for Construction (Bkl; Stcrt. 2017, no. 24 681). The Bkl is making changes to the Building Decree 2012. With the entry into force of the Environmental Act, the Building Decree 2012 will expire and the Building Works and Living Environment Decree (Bbl) will apply as its successor. This means that the new version of the subordinate legislation will in any case make changes to the Bbl.

Also changes in Building Decree 2012

However, it is expected that these subordinate regulations will also make changes to the Building Decree 2012. Minister Ollongren writes in her letter that the admission organization for construction quality assurance will become operational this year. This admission organization is responsible, among other things, for the admission of quality assurance instruments. Since the Bbl has not yet entered into force and the admission organization must be able to decide on the admission of instruments this year, the rules regarding this will be included in the Building Decree 2012.

The admission organization for construction quality assurance

According to the minister, the construction quality assurance admission organization, as an important link in the quality assurance system, will become operational this year. The establishment of the admission organization is completely on schedule, according to Ollongren. The admission organization can only become operational if provisions from the Construction Quality Assurance Act that apply to that organization come into effect. In other words, the Quality Assurance for Construction Act will partially come into effect this year.

The admission organization's duties include deciding on the admission of an instrument to the public register, issuing a warning to the instrument provider or suspending or withdrawing an instrument and maintaining the public register. The admission organization carries out random inspections during the construction process and upon delivery. In this way, the admission organization gains an idea of the extent to which buildings realized with quality assurance meet the construction regulations. 

850 quality assurance staff

The Association of Quality Assurers in the Netherlands indicates that they expect to be able to attract sufficient staff as quality guarantors. However, this requires that there be work for these quality assurance staff. More pilot projects can help to gradually hire more people. The point of attention here is that recruiting quality assurance staff from construction companies and consultancy firms does not lead to capacity problems at those parties.

There are currently approximately 200 certified quality assurance providers. The total number of quality guarantees required depends on the number of construction projects in consequence class 1 after the quality assurance system comes into effect. The Association of Quality Assurers in the Netherlands previously estimated that 850 quality guarantors are needed for consequence class 1. Recalculations of the number of construction projects in consequence class 1 show that this number is expected to be lower. All parties involved are jointly examining how the recruitment of quality assurance staff can be arranged in such a way that there are no gaps in the chain, according to Ollongren. The minister therefore does not yet see the number of quality assurance officers as an obstacle to the introduction of the quality assurance system.

Pilot projects

Minister Ollongren states that the aim of pilot projects is, on the one hand, to detect and resolve any imperfections at an early stage and, on the other hand, to gain work experience with cooperation and information exchange between parties (contractor, quality assurance and municipality). The start of new pilot projects is slower than expected. A point of attention in the near future will be to include a more broad diversity of construction projects. The aim is to achieve a representative cross-section of all construction projects. The focus is on testing all steps in the process with the involvement of all parties.

Representative cross section

According to Ollongren, the ambition in the administrative agreement to implement 10% of the construction projects as a pilot project is not an explicit condition for the entry into force of the new system, but it is an important goal. The greater the volume of pilot projects, the more experience can be gained. This in turn means that there is thorough preparation and the entry into force can proceed more smoothly. In addition to the volume - which partly depends on the willingness of municipalities and construction parties to participate in pilots - it is at least as important to test a broad diversity in construction processes, the so-called representative cross-section. This ensures that a good picture is created of any bottlenecks that need to be resolved.

To date, no insurmountable bottlenecks have emerged based on previous experiences and the recently started new pilot projects, the minister said.

Source: Bouwwereld.nl