Less constraints, fewer planning obstacles for better harmonisation of building rules. Pending new legislation, the powers of the National Health and Safety Service of the Civil Service (Service national de la sécurité dans la fonction publique, SNSFP) have been integrated into the Labour and Mines Inspectorate (ITM) since 1 January 2025.

“For the transitional period, which will last until new legislation comes into force to harmonise construction safety rules in the private and public sectors, a mechanism for derogations from the aforementioned standards has been put in place,” explains labour minister  (CSV).

This derogation mechanism is a move towards administrative simplification in line with the government’s “Méi, a méi séier bauen” initiative. It involves the least restrictive applicable safety thresholds being systematically authorised by the ITM in order to speed up construction projects.

“We’ve been waiting for this merger for a long time, because the way things had been working until then didn't really make sense. We had ITM regulations and Service national de la sécurité dans la fonction publique rules that were sometimes inconsistent. This will make it possible to avoid these inconsistencies, streamline procedures and have ‘one point’ for dealing with safety-related issues. It will unify and standardise things to provide greater clarity,” says the director of the Ordre des architectes et des ingénieurs-conseils (OAI), . It’s good news for the sector, then, which had been calling for simplification.

And until the new legislation comes into force, “we are trying with the ITM to put in place coordination of the rules for greater efficiency on the ground. We’re going to have to make this operational on the ground. There’s work to be done, but we have to do it, and everyone seems well motivated to do so,” continues Hurt.

The government specifies that “for projects which have already been the subject of a prior examination by the SNSFP before 31 December 2024, the requirements previously defined by this service remain in force. However, the authors of these projects are free to submit, if necessary, a request for modification of such a project to the ITM in order to benefit from the above-mentioned derogation mechanism.”

Files that were awaiting a decision as of 31 December 2024 will be processed by the ITM in accordance with the transitional provisions referred to above.

This article was originally published in .