Body asked by Department for Business to establish common way of achieving Level 2 accreditation.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has tasked the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) with establishing a new certification scheme to show that companies comply with Level 2 BIM.
Currently there are a number of certification schemes for BIM Level 2 available in the market, such as one drawn up by the BRE.
UKAS says it has been asked by BEIS and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to investigate a way to form a common, as yet undecided way of achieving BIM certification which will hopefully help deliver the Construction Strategy and avoid confusion for those seeking accredited certification for their BIM Level 2 activities.
Once a common approach has been agreed by BEIS and CPNI, it is anticipated that a pilot assessment programme will be undertaken to develop the necessary assessment and accreditation capability for this activity in accordance with international conformity assessment standards.
Mark Bew, chairman of the government’s BIM Task Group, announced the plan for new certification as he officially launched Digital Built Britain at a conference in London.
University Technical College (UTC) in Wolverhampton was delivered in BIM Level 2 by Associate Architects, Thomas Vale and M&E contractor LJJ
Digital Built Britain is the latest stage of the UK’s BIM Task Group programme and brings together a number of digital and innovation programmes under one funding umbrella. Originally announced in the 2016 Budget, Digital Built Britain aims to deliver reductions in whole-life costs and carbon emissions, while improving productivity and capacity by using intelligent building information models, sensing technology and secure data and information infrastructure.
Digital Built Britain will also continue the work of the BIM Task Group programme, set up in 2011 to deliver up to 20% savings on costs of major projects.
Garry Fannon, head of BIM at Willmott Dixon, said he was unaware of the launch of a new accreditation scheme, but did not see it as a major disruption to the current market as many contractors had already made their choice in the area.
“There are already a number of BIM certs in the market, personally we’ve chosen to go with BRE. If UKAS develop their own approach that is fine.”
John Adams, head of BIM services at BIM Strategy said he thought a new scheme could be good: “Anything new in helping people get BIM certified is good. What we need is some overall direction and structure.”
