16 December 2022
Your request
Please could you provide data under Freedom of Information legislation/Environmental Information Regulations on the number of building control cases dealt with by your Council in each of the past five complete years, broken down by type, i.e.:
1) Full plans,
2) Building notices,
3) Regularisation certificates,
4) Self-certification certificates by authorised installers?
And, if possible, could you also break down this data further by the types of works as set out in the Building Regulations 2010 section 12(1)
( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/contents/made), i.e.:
a. carry out building work;
b. replace or renovate a thermal element in a building to which the energy efficiency requirements apply;
c. make a change to a building’s energy status;
d. make a material change of use,
or by any other categories that you use?
Our response
We consider that the EIR is the correct legislation for this response.
We note that Section 2(EIR) defines Environmental Information as follows:-
Environmental Information has the same meaning as in Article 2(1) of the Directive, namely any information in written, visual, aural, electronic or any other material form on—
a) the state of the elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites including wetlands, coastal and marine areas, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements;
b) factors, such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment, affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment referred to in (a);
c) measures (including administrative measures), such as policies, legislation, plans, programmes, environmental agreements, and activities affecting or likely to affect the elements and factors referred to in (a) and (b) as well as measures or activities designed to protect those elements;
(d) reports on the implementation of environmental legislation;
(e) cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used within the framework of the measures and activities referred to in (c); and
(f) the state of human health and safety, including the contamination of the food chain, where relevant, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures inasmuch as they are or may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment referred to in (a) or, through those elements, by any of the matters referred to in (b) and (c);
We consider that your request will fall within subsection C of the EIR.
With regard to Q1-3, I attach for your refence a breakdown of total number of Building Notices, Full Plans applications, and Regularisation Certificate applications for the last 5 complete financial years up to April 2022.
With regard to Q4, due to currently active changes to our database, we are unable to give full and accurate figures with regards to Competent Persons notifications. If you would still like to receive this information, we would ask that you contact the Information Request Team (foi@lambeth.gov.uk) in approx. 6 months' time, when we would hope to be able to fulfil this part of your request.
With regard to your final question, please reference the below link to search building applications by keyword, reference number, postcode or single line of an address, which may assist to you break down the data further by the types of works: