FM compliance

Discussion paper

 

The concept of compliance is a complex issue for facilities management. Across the sector, service providers and clients are often unsure how to achieve statutory compliance – or how to interpret it to meet their needs; and equally, they’re also unsure how far they must adhere to the cat’s cradle of British Standards, guidance notes, approved codes of practice, manufacturers’ instructions and individual building owners’ requirements in order to be contractually compliant.

Because there is no universally agreed framework approach to determining whether an organisation is or is not compliant, BIFM is launching a national debate which will capture the views of people in the industry on what constitutes compliance. The aim is to arrive at a clearer understanding of which FM activities are essential in order to be statutorily compliant, and to distinguish them from FM activities which may or may not be required by clients. 

Following the debate process, BIFM intends to publish a Good Practice Guide to compliance best practice. 

The debate will examine the definition of statutory compliance, consider why there are so many other and different approaches to compliance, and ask whether it is possible to define an industry standard? 

To initiate the debate, BIFM convened a group of senior FM professionals for a round-table discussion.