Public building definition
The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) consultation document, Display Energy Certificates: current regime and how it could be streamlined and improved, published in 2015, points out that EU countries define ‘public buildings’ in a number of different ways:
- The Czech Republic, defines public as; all buildings that are not apartments or are non-residential.
- Finland; those buildings which provide public services.
- France; a building that is occupied by a governmental body.
The document proposes that in the UK, a narrow definition should be adopted:
- A building that is: “occupied by a public authority and frequently visited by the public”.
It defines ‘frequently visited by the public’ as; “daily attendance during days of operation by people for purposes unrelated to their residence, employment, education or training.”
This means for example that a school used only as a school, is not a public building because it is not daily attended by people who are neither staff nor pupils. However, a school that is also used daily for community functions is a public building.
‘Public authority’ is defined in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as any body which, any other person who, or the holder of any office which:
- Is listed in schedule 1 of the Act, (government departments, legislative bodies, the armed forces and so on), or
- Is designated by the Secretary of State under section 5 of the Act, (because they appear to be carrying out functions of a public nature or are contracted to provide a service which is a function of a public authority) or
- A publicly-owned company as defined by section 6 (such as a company wholly owned by the Crown).
See Public authority for more information.
The Building Regulations define public buildings as:
| a building consisting of or containing—
(a) a theatre, public library, hall or other place of public resort; (b) a school or other educational establishment not exempted from the operation of building regulations by virtue of section 4(1)(a) of the Act(7); or (c) a place of public worship; but a building is not to be treated as a place of public resort because it is, or it contains, a shop, storehouse or warehouse, or is a dwelling to which members of the public are occasionally admitted. |
[edit] Find out more
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Composition of UK construction industry 2013.
- Construction industry institutes and associations.
- Display Energy Certificates: current regime and how it could be streamlined and improved
- Government departments responsibility for construction.
- Local authority.
- Local planning authority.
- Planning authority.
- Public authority.
- Types of building.
- UK.
- Unitary authority.
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