Appointment of members to the Northern Ireland Building Regulations Advisory Committee

1. NIBRAC is a statutory body set up under Article 4 of the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) Order 1979, to advise the Department on the amendment of Building Regulations and on other associated matters referred to it.  It is chaired by Ms Mabel Higgins, who was appointed in April 2019.  Further information about NIBRAC can be found at https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/articles/northern-ireland-building-regulations-advisory-committee.

2. The Chair and members of NIBRAC do not receive remuneration but they can claim  reasonable expenses incurred during their work for the Committee.

3. The appointment of the members was made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland’s Code of Practice.  A selection panel, which included an independent panel member, as required under the Commissioner’s Code, considered the suitability of all candidates. 

4. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland requires the political activity of appointees to be published. David Algie and Ross Reid have declared that they have not undertaken any political activity during the past five years.

5. Biographical details:

• David Algie represents the Building Services, Engineering and Energy area of expertise on NIBRAC.  He is an experienced building services engineer with over 15 years in the construction industry. In his career to date David’s engineering design has covered a diverse geography including the UK, Europe, Middle East and Australasia. His experience covers both public and private sectors which includes commercial, healthcare, leisure and government buildings. He holds a BEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Queens University Belfast. David is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (FCIBSE) and the Institution of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (FIHEEM).

David is currently an Associate Director at Arup, leading the mechanical, electrical and public health (MEP) engineering team in Belfast and part of the wider Buildings West leadership team. This is David’s first term as member of NIBRAC and he holds no other public appointments.

• Ross Reid represents the Architecture area of expertise on NIBRAC.  He was awarded a BSc (Architecture), BArch and PG Cert by Queen’s University Belfast which enabled addition to the Architect’s Register and Chartered Membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He has undertaken numerous other training including CDM, BIM, Project Management, Law and Contract Management.

Ross is an Architect with just under 20 years’ experience in the Construction industry. This experience has largely been in private architectural practice and more recently in the public and private sectors. In private practice Ross worked on numerous projects which were nominated for awards and his public sector experience includes 5 years working for a NI council at a senior level within Building Control with additional duties including Building Energy Performance and Capital projects. Ross currently works in the private sector heading a team which is responsible for the delivery of a capital programme of works for a public sector client.  This is his first term as a member of NIBRAC and he holds no other public appointments

6. Further NIBRAC members will be appointed in due course in the following areas of expertise:

• Building regulation enforcement
• Building surveying
• Construction (domestic)
• Construction (non-domestic)
• Fire safety, fire protection and fire safety engineering
• Structural engineering

Further information on the recruitment competition will be announced shortly.

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