Building and fire safety working group minutes: June 2024

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
• Minister for Housing
• Stephen Garvin - Head of Building Standards Division  
• Andrew Gunn - Building Standards Division  
• Andy Dailly - Schools Infrastructure Unit 
• Bill Connolly - Health Facilities Scotland 
• Colette Templeton - Building Standards Division 
• Scott Young – Building Standards Division 
• Sarah Waugh – Building Standards Division    
• Chris Getty - SFRS 
• Ian MacLeod - SFRS 
• James Clark - Safer Communities Division 
• Lisel Porch -  Safer Communities Division  
• Chris Booth – Safer Communities Division
• Steven Scott - Building Standards Division 
• Stuart Morrison - Building Standards Division 

Apologies

• Minister for Victims and Community Safety
• Alan Morrison - Health Infrastructure and Sustainability 
• Neil Mitchell – Building Standards Division 
• Colin Hird - Building Standards Division

Items and actions

Welcome and Introductions: Summary and update on actions from previous meeting on 13 December 2023.  

The Chair welcomed everyone to the 24th meeting of the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety. The following introductory points were noted:

We have now published the minute of last meeting on 23 February. That meeting covered the following topics: Cameron House Hotel, Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Panels, Cladding Remediation Programme, Grenfell Inquiry and selected Sector Progress Updates.

No specific actions arising from the meeting were recorded. Actions previous to the December 2023 meeting had been closed off.

Papers are presented today on the Grenfell Inquiry, Building Standards Futures Board, RAAC and the Cameron House Hotel Expert Group.

Grenfell Inquiry

The Grenfell Public Inquiry has been ongoing for 6 years now. Phase 1 hearings commenced in 2018, the Phase 1 Report was published in October 2019 with the Scottish Government (SG) response following a year later in October 2020. The paper set out the actions taken by SG and the Scottish and Fire Rescue Services (SFRS) following the Phase 1 publication.

Phase 2 of the Inquiry was examining the events leading up to the fire. Hearings ran from January 2021 to July 2022. The Inquiry has written to around 250 parties providing an opportunity to comment with the intention of the Phase 2 report being published on 4 September 2024. 

The Phase 2 Working Group was convened three years. The group has continued to meet every 2-3 months and has reviewed summary evidence from each of the Inquiry modules. This has allowed officials to understand the areas likely to be covered in the final report. The areas it is likely to cover are building control, the regulations in force at the time and the competence of those involved. It is expected that there will be a substantial number of recommendations in respect of construction materials and certification of products. Other topics include fire safety, PEEPs, housing management and refurbishment along with the need for consistent engagement with residents and residents’ groups to ensure concerns are properly addressed regarding building maintenance and refurbishment work. There should also be processes in place to support managing displaced residents including effective communication with affected parties. 

The issue of competence more generally across the construction industry was also likely to be addressed though dealt with in more detail beyond building control roles. This included the competence of fire risk assessors and how improvement plans developed from fire risk assessments were being monitored and actioned – an issue where work was already underway. 

The Minister for Housing also observed that co-ordination of activities was important given various issues might impact on the delivery of cladding remediation projects. 

Ministers noted that a Ministerial Working Group should be the focus for further Grenfell Inquiry discussion.  The Cabinet Secretary requested that preparation for the publication of the Phase 2 report should take place over the summer. 

Action point 1 

Cabinet Secretary Private Office would liaise with Ministers and officials about the co-ordination of work in respect of the Phase 2 report over the summer, including the role of a Ministerial Working Group.  

Building Standards Futures Board and Scottish Building Standards Hub

The issued paper provides an overview on the work of the Futures Board, set up in 2019 to oversee work in response to review panels on fire safety and compliance. This was initially a four-year programme.

Working in partnership with Fife Council and Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS), the workplan recently delivered the first National Building Standards Hub, with a soft launch in May and a formal launch in September 2024. The hub will provide specialist expertise to building standards verifiers and other stakeholders.

Building warrant fees increased on 1 April and was the first since 2017 with future increases dependent on an annual review based on feedback and monitoring of fee investment.

Other work delivered includes a three-year workforce strategy for building standards staff and a modern apprentice scheme to increase the number of building standards surveyors in local authorities.  

Officials and partners are developing a Compliance Plan approach, initially for higher risk buildings, testing this at present through an ‘early adopters’ scheme. 

In November 2023, the Futures Board agreed to extend its programme and to continue four workstreams for a further two years.

The Cabinet Secretary welcomed the launch of the hub and asked for advice on the extent to which this initiative will assist businesses in meeting the requirements of the building standards system, such as through quicker decisions and more consistency of approach. 

Action point 2 

To be followed up with a discussion with the Minister for Housing to consider how these issues feed into the First Minister’s broader narrative on business. 

Fire Safety Review, including Cameron House Hotel

The paper offers a comprehensive overview of recent actions following publication of the Short Life Working Group report published in October 2023.

Review topics included consideration of the limitations and benefits of Automatic Fire Suppression Systems (AFSS), the definition of traditional buildings, ongoing work on published guidance documents and extending current bans on combustible cladding. 

The last meeting on 28 May received interim findings from the cost/benefit analysis for AFSS in traditional buildings used as hotels. Timescales for review are noted in the paper, with a consultation planned for September 2024 and the opportunity to receive stakeholder views. The intention is to make formal recommendations to Ministers on key changes following analysis of responses.

Officials are preparing a response to Jackie Baillie MSP and will be shared with Ms Midgely, the mother of one of the Cameron House Hotel fire victims, to provide her with a biannual update on the work of the group.

A separate cost benefit analysis is ongoing looking at extending the current ban on combustible cladding to hotels and similar residential buildings and looking into whether cladding is a contributory factor to incidents. 

A submission to Ministers will be provided in advance of the consultation going live in September 2024 outlining a further update on this work as it progresses.

Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete

An update on RAAC was provided prior to consideration of the proposed publication of an overview report.

The discovery phase is almost complete with a small number of returns outstanding from some Public Bodies, housing providers and for non-school/non-housing Local Authority estate interests. 

Key sectors are beyond the discovery phase and well into longer-term RAAC management response.  Engagement work continues through the Cross Sector Working Group and sub groups, senior officials groups and UK/four nations engagement.

Noted that a gateway review of response and coordination work was undertaken in May to assess assurance of process and received a positive report, recognising active engagement and a clear picture of the work that needs to be undertaken across Scotland. 

The draft report is an action arising from RAAC Cross-Government Working Group, to put a summary report into the public domain. It includes narrative on RAAC as an issue, the SG response and then offers detail of sector by sector responses, including links to where more information is available. It also seeks to reassure that where RAAC is identified, it is being managed in accordance with industry good practice.

The Cabinet Secretary supported the intention to publish the report.  

Ministerial Working Group (MWG) Progress Updates

SG officials proceeded to provide oral updates to Ministers in regard to workstreams being taken forward within scope of the MWG.

Cladding Remediation Programme

The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill was passed unanimously by Parliament on 14 May 2024 with attention now turning to commencement of provisions. 

The Single Building Assessment (SBA) specification is currently in the final stages of development and is expected to be published this month (June 2024). In line with the 2023-24 mandate commitment, we are committed to ensuring that each entry in the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme is on an SBA pathway by Summer 2024.  We are engaging with the developers who have buildings within the pilot to facilitate “handover” for assessment, as well as preparing for a pilot cleanse to establish height and risk base of pilot buildings. 

Work continues to take forward the 2023-24 Stock Survey mandate commitment to identify all relevant buildings with potentially unsafe cladding across Scotland.  We are working to produce a dataset based on data held in the public with partners including Ordnance Survey and Registers of Scotland; similarly, work is progressing to obtain data held in the private sector. 

NHS Estate

As of 21 May, 555 properties have been surveyed with 46 identified as containing RAAC. One property was vacated in September 2023 and one has been subject to remediation. The remaining 44 require monitoring and management and some minor remediation. The total cost so far is approximately £1m for 2023-24, with the same cost expected for next year. No significant capital funding has been required to date.

In terms of remediation work at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, cladding replacement is progressing well with work ahead of schedule. No other issues to highlight to the group.

Schools Estate

At the December meeting, it was reported that over 40 school locations were identified with RAAC and various management arrangements were in place. Further data collection via SHOPs confirms that 32 operational school settings currently contain RAAC. 15 properties have temporary mitigations in place and are planning to remove RAAC over the summer break. 10 properties have installed permanent solutions. Of the remaining seven, four have temporary mitigations such as  temporary accommodation in place and plans for permanent action, three have RAAC in good condition with a periodic monitoring strategy.

Remedial work will be completed over the summer and officials will work with local authorities on a further data collection exercise as response work is progressed.

Fire Risk Assessment

A submission to the Minister for Victims and Community Safety was made a couple of months ago. This recommended amending the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 so duty holders for relevant premises were required to engage a competent Fire Risk Assessor. The intention would be to assess the risk factors of the relevant premises and assign duties on the basis of the risk factors and evidence base. A project plan for the work was in development with appropriate advice being sought on how plans would be taken forward.  The group will be updated further as work progresses.

AOB and date of next meeting  

No other business was raised. The next routine meeting would take place in December 2024.