There only process the CAA use is reading your logbook. My hour building (although I never regarded it as hour building as I had no intention of getting a CPL at that point) involved long weekends farm-stripping with the Mrs in the westcountry, flying whilst on holiday in South Africa, NZ, USA etc...
I see no benefit to flying around under the hood, especially if you don't already have an instrument qualification. You can build IFR hours perfectly legally whilst looking outside, but flying by sole reference to instruments before you've been trained to do so is not a particularly clever idea; you'd also need a safety pilot to keep an eye out for other traffic.