Building Research Establishment ~ The BRE was founded as a UK
Government agency in 1921 and was known until the early 1970s as
the Building Research Station.In addition to UK Government funding, some financial support is
now provided by the European Union. Additional funding is derived
from a variety of sources, including commercial services for private
industry and from publications. The latter includes the BRE's well
known regular issue of research information products, i.e. Digests,
Information Papers, Good Building Guides and Good Repair Guides.UK Government support is principally through the Department for
Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The DCLG
works with the BRE in formulating specific aspects of the Approved
Documents to the Building Regulations. Commissioned research is
funded by BRE Trust.The BRE incorporates and works with other specialised research
and material testing organisations, e.g. see LPCB, below. It is
accredited under the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)
as a testing laboratory authorised to issue approvals and
certifications such as CE product marking (see pages 64 and 65).
Certification of products, materials and applications is effected
through BRE Certification Ltd.Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) ~ The origins of this
organisation date back to the latter part of the 19thcentury, when
it was established by a group of building insurers as the Fire
Offices' Committee (FOC).Through a subdivision known as the Loss Prevention Council
(LPC), the FOC produced a number of technical papers and
specifications relating to standards of building construction and
fire control installations. These became the industry standards
that were, and continue to be, frequently used by building insurers
as supplementary to local byelaws and latterly the Building
Regulation Approved Documents.In the late 1980s the LPC was renamed as the LPCB as a result of
reorganisation within the insurance profession. At this time the
former LPC guidance documents became established in the current
format of Loss Prevention Standards.In 2000 the LCPB became part of the BRE and now publishes its
Standards under BRE Certification Ltd.Product and Practice Accreditation