If you certify energy designs in Scotland under a BRE Global scheme — or you rely on someone who does — there is a hard date in the diary. On 29 September 2026 BRE Global’s Approved Certifier of Design (Section 6 – Energy) schemes close, both the domestic and the non-domestic one. The announcement went to members on 2 April, so it is not news in itself, but the deadline is now just over three weeks away and the closure notice contains several traps for projects that straddle it.
What BRE has said
BRE’s letter to members is short on ceremony: the decision is “driven by commercial considerations relating to scheme operations”, the schemes “will remain in operation until 29 September 2026, after which they will close”, no new applications are being accepted, and existing members “will not be able to certify projects after this time”. Membership is not being transferred to another provider — BRE is “not entering into any agreements with another Scheme Provider” — so a renewal that falls before the date only buys membership up to 29 September, and one that falls after it simply lapses. BRE says it has been working with the Scottish Government’s Building Standards Division, the Scottish Building Standards Hub and LABSS on processes to limit the disruption. (BRE Global closure notice and FAQs, 2 April 2026)
Approved Bodies can keep producing Certificates of Design in the usual way right up to the closing date. The complications are for anything that isn’t finished by then.
Why it matters beyond the certifiers themselves
Under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 a Certificate of Design from an appointed scheme is confirmation that the design meets Section 6 (Energy) of the Building Regulations. LABSS puts it plainly: verifiers “must accept” a BRE or RIAS energy certificate, with its accompanying drawings and details, as complying with Section 6 (LABSS, Certifiers of Design). That is why the route exists — a certified Section 6 design earns a discount on the building warrant fee and avoids the verifier re-checking the SAP or SBEM work. Take the certificate away and the full Section 6 design information goes to the local authority verifier for checking instead, with everything that does to programme.
Only two schemes are appointed for Section 6 energy: BRE’s and the RIAS scheme, which covers both domestic and non-domestic buildings. From 30 September, RIAS is the only one left. BRE’s FAQs point departing members to the Scottish Building Standards Certification portal for the alternative, and warn that membership criteria and application processes “may be different” — and that the other scheme may ask BRE whether an applicant left with any outstanding audit issues.
Staged certificates: the trap
The sharpest warning in the notice concerns staged certification. Where a parent certificate and early stage certificates have been produced under the BRE scheme, no further stage certificates can be generated after 29 September. A project certified at foundations and superstructure this summer cannot have its final design certified by BRE this autumn. BRE’s advice is to think about this from the outset for anything that will span the date, and it lists three ways out:
- take the project through a non-certified route — full Section 6 information to the verifier;
- switch to a single, traditional certificate if you are confident the whole design can be certified before 29 September; or
- certify the project, including the remaining stages, through another scheme provider.
The consequences of leaving a staged project stranded are spelt out. Any discounted warrant fee received for the Section 6 element has to be repaid to the local authority, and the authority will not issue the warrant or stage approval until it has been. The complete final Section 6 design then goes to the verifier for checking, and the designer, applicant or agent has to make sure it complies before submitting it. Moving to the other scheme is possible but not a shortcut: the project and all its earlier stages would typically have to be registered afresh, with fees, and the new Approved Body has to satisfy itself that the earlier stages comply — it cannot certify only the final stage.
Schedule 1 items, records and the members’ area
Three smaller points from the FAQs that are easy to miss:
- Schedule 1 items. Where a certificate depends on items listed on a Schedule 1 form, a certificate produced before 29 September remains valid provided those items meet the specified performance. The certifier should complete a Form Q for the verifier, keep the evidence of compliance and give the verifier a copy.
- Records. Certificates of Design and the evidence behind them must be kept for at least seven years. That obligation does not close with the scheme.
- The members’ area shuts on 29 September. BRE will not be able to provide project information after that date, so anything you need — certificates, registrations, audit correspondence — has to be extracted and saved before it.
BRE closes with a reminder that compliance is the building owner’s or developer’s responsibility, and that a building warrant application must “clearly and fully” demonstrate compliance with the mandatory standards whether or not it is certified. For a Section 6 submission that means the SAP or SBEM calculation and its inputs — U-values, junction Ψ-values, air permeability, services — will be read by a verifier rather than signed off by a certifier.
What to do in the next three weeks
If you are a BRE Approved Body or certifier: list every live project, flag the staged ones, and decide for each whether it can be fully certified by the 29th, goes non-certified, or moves to RIAS. Download everything from the members’ area now rather than on the last day. If you are a designer or developer using a BRE certifier: ask which of those three routes applies to your job, and budget time for a verifier check if it is the first. If you are a verifier: expect a run of Form Qs and a rise in non-certified Section 6 submissions from October.
Whichever route a project takes, the calculation underneath it has to stand up on its own. ΨMonkey gives you calculated junction Ψ-values for the common details in your browser, so the fabric inputs in a Section 6 SAP submission are ones a verifier can trace rather than defaults. Want the whole Section 6 calculation done? Send us the drawings.
Sources: Important Notice regarding the BRE Global Approved Certifier of Design Schemes — letter and FAQs, 2 April 2026 (BRE Global) · Latest ACD News and Updates (BRE Group) · Certifiers of Design (LABSS) · Scottish Building Standards Certification portal