School handover: fire stopping, a conflict of interest and a certificate
You are the client-side project manager for a £6.5m new primary school for a local authority, due to hand over to the academy trust 18 days before the September term. During pre-handover inspection, the fire officer's retained inspector finds that 12 of 90 service penetrations through fire compartment walls are not correctly sealed and that two dampers are the wrong rating. The main contractor's project director says these are snagging and proposes to complete them out of hours during the first week of term. He asks you not to raise a formal non-conformance because it will trigger a review of his firm's stage payment and affect its framework rating, and points out that the school will have to close for two days if the opening is delayed. The building control body has not yet issued its final certificate, the insurer requires evidence of compliant fire stopping before occupation, and the academy trust has published its term dates. You also learn that a colleague in your team has a brother who is a director of the fire-stopping subcontractor and has been certifying that subcontractor's monthly valuations.
1. How do you handle the fire-stopping issue and the contractor's request not to record a non-conformance?
Read the worked answer
Refuse, record and escalate, then solve the occupation problem separately.
On the non-conformance. Twelve unsealed penetrations and two incorrectly rated dampers in fire compartment walls are a life-safety defect, not snagging. The building control body's final certificate and the insurer's requirement for evidence of compliant fire stopping both depend on it, so it also blocks lawful occupation. You cannot agree to suppress the record: it is a controlled record relied on by the client, the insurer, the funder and future fire risk assessments, and falsifying it would be a misrepresentation and a breach of any professional code you are bound by.
What to do
- Raise the non-conformance the same day, with photographs and locations.
- Instruct a competent third-party survey of all 90 penetrations, not a sample, plus verification of damper ratings. Unseen defects cluster.
- Require a remediation method statement, competent installers and evidence of reinstatement by inspection or test before sign-off.
- Notify the academy trust, building control and the insurer with dates and options rather than reassuring silence.
- Tell the contractor's project director in writing that you have recorded the request and your response, and copy your sponsor. Keep the tone factual.
On the out-of-hours proposal. It may be workable, but only if the trust consents, building control and the insurer accept a phased occupation, and the fire risk assessment supports compensating measures such as a fire watch or restricted areas. That is a client and trust decision with a documented risk acceptance, not a contractor's scheduling convenience.
2. What do you do about your colleague's conflict of interest?
Read the worked answer
Declare it, and remove the colleague from the decisions.
Immediate steps
- Declare the interest in writing to your manager and the authority's monitoring officer or governance lead, under the declaration-of-interest procedure, recording what the colleague is responsible for and for how long.
- The colleague should stop certifying that subcontractor's valuations. Past certifications should be re-checked - a conflict is not misconduct if declared and managed, but failing to declare it while continuing to certify is.
- Ask someone independent, a quantity surveyor or internal audit, to sample-audit the valuations already certified, comparing measured work against payment.
- Do not alter or backdate any record, and do not discuss it with the subcontractor.
Balance. Be fair to the colleague. Many declarations are innocent, and heavy-handed treatment discourages others from declaring. Keep the information to those who need it.
Where it connects to the fire stopping. The same subcontractor is at the centre of the defect. Independence in assessing both its work and its valuations is essential if the remediation is to be believed.
Report to the sponsor that the declaration was made and controls applied, without disclosing unnecessary personal detail. If the audit finds inflated valuations, escalate to the monitoring officer and consider referral under the authority's anti-fraud procedures and the relevant professional body.
3. Your director instructs you to sign the practical completion certificate so the trust can claim its funding. What is your response?
Read the worked answer
Do not sign a certificate you know to be untrue.
What practical completion means. It is a contractual statement that the works are complete except for minor items that do not prevent occupation and use. With open fire compartment penetrations, no final building control certificate and no insurer acceptance, that statement would be false. Signing would misrepresent the position to the trust, the insurer and potentially the funder, could invalidate insurance, and could expose individuals to liability if a fire occurred.
What to do
- Put your advice in writing to your director: the specific defects, the missing certificates, the consequences of certifying, and the alternatives.
- Offer workable routes: sectional or partial possession of unaffected blocks so the trust can open part of the school; an interim certificate with an explicit carve-out; a remediation programme backed by retention or a bond; or a request to the funder for a short extension supported by the remediation plan.
- Give the trust a dated, evidence-based plan so it can manage its own communication with parents.
- Escalate through the SRO and, if pressed, to the monitoring officer or legal services. Record the instruction and your response.
On the pressure. Being told to do it is not a defence for a professional, and the certificate would carry your name. Loyalty to an employer does not extend to certifying something you know to be wrong. Raising it early, with alternatives, is both the ethical and the practical route; the trust is better served by a short delay than by a school it cannot lawfully occupy.