The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.
Statutory checks
There are various pieces of legislation that require you to undertake certain checks and inspections of your community space and its installations. What you need to check, and how often, depends on what you have in your space but could include things like testing fire alarms and checking electrical systems.
You should create a checklist that covers everything needed for your space. If you use an online calendar, it’s worth creating appointments as reminders too (even better if this is a shared calendar, so there’s shared accountability). You should also record when you carried out the checks, who did it, and what the result was.
Here are some of the things you might need to check:
| Electrical fixed wiring | Electrical PAT testing | Emergency and exit lights |
| Fire alarms | Portable firefighting equipment | Any renewable energy products (PV cells, turbines, etc.) |
| Lifts | Gas appliances test and certification | Gas systems, including boilers |
| Oil boilers and other oil-fired appliances | Air conditioning systems | Water quality sampling and chlorination |
| Playground equipment | Gym equipment | Kitchen equipment |
| Hearing loop systems | Burglar alarms and control panel testing | Power access doors |
This facilities management schedule of checks from DTAS gives you an outline of different checks that need to happen weekly, monthly, 6-monthly, annually and every 5 years. It also outlines who needs to carry out the check. You can use this as the basis for your own checklist.
This maintenance checklist from MacAir gives a really detailed list of statutory checks.