The deadline is part of the industry’s drive towards full qualification.

The CRO cards cover a host of ancillary construction roles but crucially you don’t need industry related qualifications to hold one.

Construction Skills Certification Scheme Head of Communications Alan O’Neile said: “In early 2015, the Construction Leadership Council announced that skills certification card schemes carrying the CSCS logo must only certify those occupations with nationally recognised construction related qualifications, i.e. NVQs or approved equivalents.

“The CRO card was issued without the requirement to demonstrate the applicant has achieved an appropriate qualification and as such does not meet the expectations of the CLC.”

Many CRO card holders will be required to register for existing or newly developed qualifications before their cards expire.

Others will be transferred to one of CSCS’s Partner Card Schemes that are more appropriate for their occupations.

For some, where their occupation is not construction related or no suitable qualification exists, a CSCS card will no longer be issued.

CSCS Chief Executive Graham Wren added: “The withdrawal of the CRO card is a practical step towards achieving the CLC’s requirement of ensuring nationally recognised qualifications are in place for all occupations.

“The 30th September is fast approaching however, together with our industry stakeholders, we have been preparing for the withdrawal of the CRO card since 2015.

“A lot of work has taken place to ensure CRO card holders know which qualifications are available and to make the transition to appropriate alternative arrangements as straightforward as possible.”

More than 13,000 of the UK’s lowest paid workers will get around £2m in back pay as part of the government’s scheme to name offenders.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published the latest list of 233 businesses that underpaid workers.

Employers on the list have also been fined a record £1.9m by the government. Retail, hairdressing and hospitality businesses were among the most prolific offenders.

Since 2013, the scheme has identified £6m in back pay for 40,000 workers, with 1,200 employers fined £4m.

Business Minister Margot James said: “It is against the law to pay workers less than legal minimum wage rates, short-changing ordinary working people and undercutting honest employers.

“The recent naming round identifies a record £2m of back pay for workers and sends the clear message to employers that the government will come down hard on those who break the law.

Common errors made by employers in this round included deducting money from pay packets to pay for uniforms, failure to account for overtime hours, and wrongly paying apprentice rates to workers.

Camden Council’s planning committee approved the deal last night.

Main contractor Lendlease will start on site next year on a contract believed to be worth around £350m.

The 11-storey building will be more than one million square feet of which Google will occupy 650,000 sq ft.

Client Investec currently occupies two floors of the building at 30 Gresham Street, and the new fit-out will see it move into the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, as well as the lower ground.

The project involves the full strip-out and fit-out of the existing floors, which includes installing an atrium staircase from levels four to eight.

ISG used 3D digital modelling to identify the logistics required to install the feature staircase.

Matt Blowers, managing director of UK Fit Out, ISG, said: “This latest win reflects the strength of ISG in the London office fit out market.

Demand for premium office space remains at a high level across London as organisations seek high-specification facilities in optimum locations. ”

The project is expected to be finished in May 2018.

The Garden Bridge Trust announced that it will be winding up the project because of lack of support for the project going forward from the Mayor.

The project will now be formally closed. This includes terminating contracts with Franco-Italian joint venture of Bouygues and Cimolai, and concluding donor funding agreements.

In April, London mayor Sadiq Khan wrote to Lord Mervyn Davies, Chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, stating that he was not prepared to sign the guarantee for the annual maintenance costs of the Bridge, a condition of planning consent, despite previous assurances given about his support for the project.

Lord Davies said: “It is with great regret that Trustees have concluded that without Mayoral support the project cannot be delivered.

“We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the Mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us.

“We had made great progress obtaining planning permission, satisfying most of our planning conditions and we had raised £70m of private money towards the project.”

“The Garden Bridge would have been a unique place; a beautiful new green space in the heart of London, free to use and open to all.

“It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects.”

It is the second cladding system to pass the large-scale fire test giving the industry a clear insight into which systems meet Building Regulation performance guidance.

The latest test results now suggest that PIR insulation can be fitted to a high-rise building, but only when used with aluminium composite material cladding using a ‘limited combustibility’ (stone) filler.

So far no high-rise buildings have been registered with the Government as having this particular combination of materials.

The Government’s testing body is carrying out a total of seven tests incorporating each of the three common types of aluminium cladding material panel, using either core filler materials of unmodified polyethylene (PE), fire retardant polyethylene (FR), or limited combustibility mineral (A2).

These are being tested in combination with two insulation materials – rigid polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam or non-combustible stone wool. The seventh test, recently added to the testing programme, will examine the performance of commonly-used phenolic foam board with ACM with a fire resistant filler (A2).

Designers and contractors will be eagerly awaiting this result, in particular.

With just one other test result due in for what is the least combustible combination of elements a picture is now emerging of which cladding systems meet the Building Regulations.

Findings so far suggest that at least 206 buildings over 18m in height that have been reported to the Government will need to be reclad.

Unmodified polyethylene filled ACM cladding, like that used on the Grenfell tower, fails Building Regulation requirements.

An aluminium cladding system using fire retardent polyethylene filler (FR) could be used, but only when installed in conjunction with mineral wool insulation and not PIR foam board.

ACM cladding using limited combustibility filler (A2) can be used with PIR foam insulation boards.

A cladding industry source said: “These results must be welcomed because they bring some clarity to what systems comply with Building Regulation requirements.

“But the use of the terminology used by manufacturers around combustibility of fillers used in aluminium cladding needs to be addressed to end market confusion.”

Another added: “The importance of these tests are that we can finally move forward with confidence in the industry.

“What is disappointing is BRE’s obsession with ACM. They have to start carrying out the same testing on other products, high pressure laminate, for example.”

Even with the latest test information the Government still advises that building owners need to continue to take professional advice regarding remedial work that takes into account the specific circumstances of their building.

The way materials have been fitted and maintained can also affect the safety of the cladding system.

Last month the government announced an independent review of building regulations and fire safety, focussed on the regulatory system around the design, construction and on-going management as well as related compliance and enforcement issues.

The bell of the famous clock will fall silent for four years to protect workers’ hearing during a £29m restoration of the Elizabeth Tower, the Great Clock and the Great Bell.

The revelation caused a storm in some national newspapers who attacked the move as “health and safety gone mad”.

Sir Robert McAlpine secured the £3.5m pre-construction services deal last year.

An HSE spokesperson said: “We’ve been concerned by a minority of the reaction to the announcement relating to the Big Ben conservation project in London.

“People’s health should not be made worse by the work they do, so it is important that no worker should suffer any hearing loss while working on this project. We find any attempt to trivialise this unhelpful.

“As part of our regulatory role, HSE has liaised with both the client and the principal contractor on this major construction project in central London.

“This has been one of many projects where we work with contractors in the planning stages, and we’ve noted how intricate, complex and challenging this particular exercise will be.

“Health and safety aside, we understand these challenges would have silenced Big Ben’s chimes for at least two years anyway.

“While we were aware part of the project related to the clock, we have not been involved in discussions about how that work will be specifically carried out.

“There is broad agreement that the noise risks associated with working around the clock bells are highly significant and we would expect the principal contractor to manage those risks.

“How it does so is a matter for those involved and their client.”