New Chair of Building Regulations Advisory Committee appointed
Date published:
Finance Minister John O’Dowd has appointed Ross Reid as the new Chair of the Northern Ireland Building Regulations Advisory Committee (NIBRAC).
This appointment is for a three-year term, which commenced on 1 October 2026.
A competition to recruit ten members to NIBRAC will commence shortly.
Notes to editors:
- NIBRAC is a statutory body set up under Article 4 of the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 to advise the Department on amendments to Building Regulations and on other associated matters referred to it. Further information about NIBRAC can be found at: www.finance-ni.gov.uk/articles/northern-ireland-building-regulations-advisory-committee
- The planned competition to appoint ten new members seeks to appoint successors to the four current sitting members, whose terms are due to end in February 2027 and to fill six vacant positions on the Committee. Each will be appointed to represent a specific area of sectoral expertise.
- The Chair and members of NIBRAC do not receive remuneration but they can claim back reasonable expenses incurred during their work for the Committee.
- The appointment of the Chair 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.
- 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. Mr Reid has declared that he has not undertaken any political activity during the past five years.
- Ross Reid holds a BSc (Architecture), BArch and PG Cert awarded by Queen’s University Belfast, a Diploma in Adjudication awarded by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, is currently on the Architect’s Register and is a Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He has undertaken further training in various specialist areas including CDM, BIM, Project Management, Fire Safety, NEC, Law and Contract Management and is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management. Ross is an Architect with almost 25 years’ experience in the Construction industry. This experience includes private architectural practice as well as in various senior roles in the public and private sectors. In private practice Ross worked on numerous projects which were nominated for awards. His public sector experience includes five years working for a NI council at a senior level within Building Control with additional duties including Building Energy Performance and Capital projects. Ross is currently an executive Director with Ark Housing Association leading the Assets & Capital Works in maintaining and improving a social housing stock portfolio for the benefit of the charity, tenants and stakeholders. Ross has previously served two terms of three years as a member of NIBRAC (Architecture area of expertise), chairing its Technical Committee for Part E (Fire safety) throughout.
- This is Ross Reid’s first term as Chair of NIBRAC and he holds no other public appointments.
- Interested parties are encouraged to email info.bru@finance-ni.gov.uk to request an update when the upcoming competition to appoint NIBRAC members commences.
- Media enquiries should be addressed to the Department of Finance Press Office on Tel: 028 9081 6724 or email dof.pressoffice@finance-ni.gov.uk. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service For Media Enquiries Only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
- To keep up to date with news from the Department you can follow us on the following social media channels: