Our history

We were founded in 1976. Since 2021 we have been known as Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS).

The Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) was established in the United Kingdom by the Presidents of the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Institution of Municipal Engineers (IMunE).

The three Institutions agree to fund and set the strategy for SCOSS.

The main function of SCOSS is to identify in advance trends and developments which might contribute to an increased risk to structural safety. To that end, SCOSS interacts with the professions, industry and government on all matters concerned with the design, construction and use of building and civil engineering structures.

The Rt Hon. Lord Penney is appointed as the Chairman of SCOSS.

SCOSS publish their first biennial report.

The IMunE is merged as part of the ICE. As such, the IStructE and the ICE now fund and set the strategy for SCOSS.

SCOSS publish their first Topic Paper titled The Collapse of New Austrian tunneling method (NATM) tunnels at Heathrow Airport.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) join the IStructE and the ICE in funding and setting the strategy for SCOSS.

SCOSS publish their first Safety Alert titled Cladding: the case for improving inspection.

SCOSS implement a system for the collation of data on matters of concern relating to structural safety. The system is named Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety (CROSS).

Alastair Soane is appointed as the Director of CROSS.

CROSS publish their first quarterly Newsletter in November 2005. It contains the first structural safety reports confidentially submitted to CROSS.

SCOSS and CROSS are formally grouped together under the name Structural-Safety.

CROSS goes international as CROSS Australasia (CROSS-AUS) is launched by the IStructE in September 2018.

CROSS-AUS publish their first Newsletter in December 2018 which includes previously published reports that were submitted to CROSS-UK that make reference to Australia.

CROSS-UK publish their 50th quarterly Newsletter in April 2018.

Recommendation 1.4c of the Building a Safer Future report (the Hackitt report) published in May 2018 was ‘For all other buildings the current CROSS scheme should be extended and strengthened to cover all engineering safety concerns and should be subject to formal review and reporting at least annually.’ Structural-Safety begin discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) on implementing this recommendation.

The international network of CROSS grows as CROSS United States (CROSS-US) is launched by the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in July 2019.

CROSS-AUS publish their second Newsletter in July 2019. It contains the first structural safety reports confidentially submitted to CROSS-AUS.

MHCLG provide funding to expand CROSS-UK to cover fire safety to fulfill recommendation 1.4c of the Hackitt report.

CROSS-US publish their first Newsletter in March 2020.

CROSS receive their 1,000th confidential safety report in November 2020.

In response to the recommendation in the Hackitt report and the requirements of the draft Building Safety Bill, CROSS-UK expands its remit to cover both fire safety and structural safety.

Structural-Safety, SCOSS and CROSS are integrated under the name Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS) in March 2021. The role of SCOSS continues under this new name.