The amendments meet the commitment made by Ministers in December 2022 to give effect to Alex Rowley MSP’s final proposal for a proposed ‘Domestic Building Environmental Standards (Scotland) Bill’.

In an accompanying statement issued by Scottish Building Standards, the next steps for the implementation of the Scottish Passivhaus Equivalent policy were outlined.

It stated: “The Scottish Government is aiming to publish the revised standards in early 2026, but they will not become mandatory until early 2028, a timetable strongly supported in consultation responses. The longer lead in time will allow developers, designers and contractors to prepare and upskill. Collaborative working is required across the sector to achieve this, and the Scottish Government will continue to work with partners to this end.”

The Passivhaus Trust said it welcomed that the amendments enable better reporting of evidence to monitor compliance with relevant standards and that Passivhaus certification is being considered as an alternative ‘means of compliance’.

A spokesperson added: “The Passivhaus Trust notes that the legislative amendments announced (yesterday) are quite minimal in scope, as many of the changes needed to implement a Scottish Passivhaus equivalent policy are already possible within existing building standards and do not require substantial legislative changes.

“Scottish Building Standards has explained this further: ‘…our current regulations and mandatory standard which address energy and environmental performance already provided the means to deliver the improvements which are currently sought. However, changes were needed to The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 to enable more effective reporting of evidence that compliance with relevant standards is achieved’.

“The Passivhaus Trust understands that the fine details of the policy are still to be revealed over the next few months. The outcome of the 2024 consultation process has yet to be announced and a further consultation in 2025 will determine the specific changes to performance targets and supporting compliance processes. The Scottish Building Standards team has stated that its consultation analysis report and Scottish Government response will be published shortly on the consultation webpage.”

In the next stage of proposals, the Passivhaus Trust said it would like to see absolute energy targets close to Passivhaus levels, a modelling tool with accuracy equivalent to PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) and details of training provision to upskill the industry as needed.

Sarah Lewis, research & policy director of the Passivhaus Trust, said: ”(Yesterday’s) announcement by the Scottish Government is an important first legislative step but we are still awaiting the fine details of what that policy will look like. We are hopeful that the recommendations we put forward in our consultation response will have been taken on board so that Scottish building standards have the accurate tools and absolute energy targets that would be essential for any standard aiming to be a Passivhaus equivalent.”