Fire performance, chemical composition and resistance to pull-out loads were all factors considered by one of the leading national contractors in the selection of Magply MgO boards for the cladding build-up on four apartment blocks in Bristol.

The BBA is a well-known and respected certification body which, through its testing, inspection and approvals activity, has been supporting innovation in the construction products industry for more than 50 years.

Assurance of quality and safety are key to building product specifiers, installers and end-users. But how do you know the product being considered matches its published specification? It’s an issue that has become more critical post-Grenfell and one that the British Board of Agrément – the UK-leading building products certification body – had been considering for some time. Its answer, launched last year, was the ground-breaking Product Excellence Programme (PEP). Here Head of the BBA Testing Unit, Alvaro Enguita-Gonzalez, explores the objective of the programme.