Building Safety Act dutyholder rules do not apply to temporary scaffolding, government confirms

Scaffold contractors across England have been given formal government backing to push back on Building Safety Act compliance demands that do not apply to their work. In a letter dated 15 June 2026 to Lord Roe, chair of the Building Safety Regulator, Building Safety Minister Samantha Dixon MP confirmed that the definition of building work was not changed by the Building Safety Act, and that scaffolding and other temporary works that did not require oversight from a building control body before October 2023 do not require it afterwards ^[1]. NASC published a response on 2 July 2026 welcoming the clarification and setting out what members should do next ^[2].

What changed: the facts behind the ministerial confirmation

The Building Safety Act received Royal Assent in April 2022, and new building-control and dutyholder rules came into force in England on 1 October 2023, including stricter requirements for higher-risk buildings ^[1]. Those rules are aimed at those who manage the permanent building lifecycle, not at contractors whose materials are removed at the end of a project.

Despite that intent, some clients and procurement teams had treated temporary scaffolding as though it fell within the same regime ^[1]. NASC raised the issue with the Building Safety Regulator after discussions within its Health and Safety Committee, and the ministerial letter followed ^[1][2]. NASC Group CEO Clive Dickin said there had been 'considerable confusion' leading in some cases to 'inconsistent procurement requirements and unnecessary compliance requests' ^[1].

Alongside the ministerial confirmation, legal advice commissioned by Build UK from Wedlake Bell LLP supports the government's position, concluding that scaffold and temporary works contractors do not fall under the statutory Building Regulations dutyholder roles where their work is temporary ^[1]. Build UK has also confirmed the clarification will affect the Common Assessment Standard, which is widely used in construction prequalification ^[1]. NASC says scaffold and temporary works contractors should no longer be asked to complete the Building Safety section of that assessment where it relates to the dutyholder regime, though competence questions will remain and revised arrangements are due once agreed ^[1][2].

Two readings: relief for contractors, unfinished business for procurement teams

For scaffold firms, the ruling removes what NASC has described as compliance paperwork intended for permanent building work that was being wrongly applied to temporary structures ^[1]. The trade body is preparing a letter that contractors can share with clients and procurement teams, alongside further member guidance ^[1]. For many smaller businesses that had been absorbing the cost of unnecessary compliance work on tendered projects, the clarification is a practical as well as a legal improvement.

From the client and principal contractor side, the picture is less straightforward. The clarification does not remove competence obligations: firms must still ensure scaffolds are properly designed, erected, inspected and managed by competent people, and existing work-at-height and temporary-works controls remain fully in place ^[1][2]. Procurement teams will need to update their prequalification templates, but the form those updates will take is still to be confirmed. Build UK has flagged that revised arrangements for the Common Assessment Standard will be published once agreed ^[1]. Until then, some contractors may continue to face outdated compliance requests from clients whose procurement processes have not yet caught up with the ruling.

Why this is a scaffolding design principles and contracts question, not just a legal one

The confusion that prompted the ministerial intervention grew directly from a gap in commercial understanding at the point of tender and prequalification. Scaffold contractors were being assessed against a regulatory framework written for permanent construction dutyholders, architects, principal designers and main contractors, rather than for temporary-works specialists. That category error sits at the intersection of scaffolding design principles and contract administration, the point at which understanding what work is in scope legally determines what a contractor can and cannot be required to sign up to.

For anyone responsible for reviewing or signing scaffold contracts, understanding where the Building Safety Act boundary sits is now an explicit commercial skill, not a legal afterthought. The HSE is clear that scaffold design must be carried out by a competent person working within a recognised standard configuration or by bespoke calculation ^[3]. What the ministerial letter adds is confirmation that the building-control oversight layer sitting above that design duty does not extend to temporary works. Knowing the distinction matters when a procurement team issues a prequalification questionnaire that has not yet been updated to reflect the clarification. A guide to what the CISRS supervisor-to-contracts manager progression looks like in practice, including the contractual knowledge required at each step, can be found in the ScaffSkills guide on career progression beyond the CISRS supervisor card (https://scaffskills.com/guides/after-cisrs-supervisor-what-next).

What a scaffolding manager should know: three checks

The ruling is clear in principle, but acting on it requires checking three things before the next tender goes out.

Clarity from government is welcome; the harder work is ensuring that clarity reaches every procurement desk before the next batch of tenders lands.