To minimise any risks associated with conflict of interests which may compromise judgement, decisions or outcomes, it is important that any conflict of interest is highlighted as early as possible in the project. The Assessor should identify any work that the assessor, assessor organisation or associated companies are involved in, or any other potential conflict of interests that may arise over the course of the project. There should be a procedure in place to mitigate and manage any such potential risks. The identification of any conflicts, together with a clear plan of how they will be managed on the project, should be included within the initial submission to the BRE; or at an appropriate time thereafter when the potential conflict becomes apparent.
A common non-conformance on many assessments relates to conflict of interests with statements either not being provided as part of the QA submission, or the statements not being detailed enough to identify what the conflicts were or address how they have been managed. It is not sufficient to merely state that there was no conflict of interest where a potential conflict is identified, full details as set out in the bullet points below should be included within the assessment. Where the conflict of interest statement does not satisfactorily address how any conflict has been managed, this will be raised as a non-conformance and as such will impact on the project achieving certification.
Where the assessor or assessor organisation has performed other roles on the project and/or provided evidence, a conflict of interest statement must always be submitted as part of the QA submission. Where the assessor or assessor organisation plays no other role on the project, no conflict of interest is required to be provided.
Please note, that the role of the Technical Auditor is not to decide or judge whether all potential conflicts of interest have been managed for a specific project and whether the internal procedures of an assessor organisation are sufficient. However, the Conflict of Interest statement should include a level of detail which explains that any potential Conflict of Interest has been identified and steps have been taken internally within the assessor organisation to limit any bias when working on an assessment.
What should be included:
This should be in the form of a signed letter or statement on headed paper, from the assessor to whom the assessment is registered, and should include the following:
- Details of the roles undertaken by the assessor on the project (e.g. BREEAM Assessor/BREEAM AP.
- Details of any other roles performed by the assessor organisation on the project, including names of those involved and what BREEAM involvement they had (e.g. building services consultant).
- Details of any evidence provided for specific BREEAM issues and who that has been completed by (e.g. LZC study for Ene04).
- How any of the above identified conflicts have been managed (e.g. assessor works independently or out of a different office, details of quality assurance processes in place)
Assessor involvement on a project:
Please note that if the assessor is a member of the company who are producing evidence to demonstrate compliance, there must be clear separation of the roles and the BREEAM assessor must not be personally responsible for producing such evidence. Producing evidence that the Assessor is then checking would be a clear conflict of interest and should therefore be avoided.
The exception to the above is where the BREEAM Assessor also acts as the BREEAM AP for the award of credits under New Construction and Refurbishment and Fit Out projects. This is acceptable and the Assessor is trusted to work in accordance with the Assessor Code of Conduct and ensure that the additional duties do not compromise their integrity and objectivity as the Assessor. BREEAM AP reports documenting their involvement and monitoring and reporting progress are deemed to be acceptable forms of evidence for the Assessor to produce where they are also the BREEAM AP, as this is an advisory role only and they are not undertaking design work or design reports.
Licensed assessors can and often will need to inform clients, project teams and asset owners/managers on whether one or more proposed solutions comply and how to interpret assessment criteria for the purpose of determining, designing or proposing compliant solutions. This type of information does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest, but assessors should be mindful in doing so that it does not lead to one.
01 Nov 2024 Minor amendments to wording including clarification on when to submit and consequences if not provided.
