Dame Judith Hackitt Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: FOI release

Information requested

In what way and by whom the Scottish Government and/or the Scottish Review Panel of Building Standards (Fire & Safety) communicated/interacted with the Dame Judith Hackitt Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety and what those involved.

Response

The answer to your question is set out below. This details all recorded interactions (4 No.) with the Dame Judith Hackitt Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety.

31 October 2017 – Teleconference
Dame Judith Hackitt and MHCLG support team with Scottish Ministers and Building & Fire Safety officials. There is no Scottish Government record of the matters discussed with the Review Panel during the call. However, it is understood that the purpose of the call was to seek information on:

• differences in the Scottish and English building standards systems.
• views on roles and responsibilities, the competence of individuals and the coherence of the regulatory system in Scotland (issues raised in discussions on the English system). 
• Ministers’ overview of their engagement with the system. 
• what changes are being considered since Grenfell, the scope of Scotland’s reviews and what are their emerging findings. 
• discussion of emerging findings from the review in England.

16 November 2017 – Teleconference

Invitation (accepted) to Building & Fire Safety officials to dial into the 7th UK Government Building Safety Ministerial Group meeting, during which Dame Judith Hackitt discussed about her review. There is no record of specific interaction between Scottish Government Officials and Dame Judith Hackitt during this call. This item is included for completeness.

9 March 2018 – Stakeholder event, Edinburgh – information gathering by Dame Judith Hackitt.
The purpose of the event was to enable Dame Judith Hackitt to seek views from a range of stakeholders in Scotland on the range of topics under review. The event was arranged by the Scottish Government’s Building and Fire Safety Co-ordination Team, together with officials from Housing and Safer Communities. The event comprised of two sessions. An agenda, issued by The Scottish Government for each session is provided below.

Agenda for Dame Judith Hackitt Visit to Scotland, 9th March 2018

Learning From Scotland’s Experience – Residents’ Voice and Tenant Participation and Scrutiny

1.	10:30	Introductions and format of the day			Scottish Government
2.	10:40	Scene setting – Background to English Review & Learning from Scotland’s experience			Dame Judith Hackitt
3.	11:00	Round Table Discussion – World café style. Topics for discussion: ·     The legislation - The Housing Scotland Act 2001 ·     The building manager/landlord perspective ·     The regulator perspective ·     Tenant participation panel ·     Information sharing and scrutiny			All
4.	12:15	Feedback
5.	12:45	Close  & Lunch

Learning From Scotland’s Experience – Industry focus

1.	13:30		Introductions and format of the day		Scottish Government
2.	13:40		Scene setting – Background to English Review & Learning from Scotland’s experience		Dame Judith Hackitt
3.	14:00		Round Table Discussion – World café style. Topics for discussion: ·     Construction and Design ·     Verification ·     Procurement ·     Occupation and maintenance ·     Competency and accreditation schemes ·     Regulations and guidance		All
4.	15:15		Feedback
5.	15:45		Close

As the originator of the event, record of discussions are held by Dame Judith Hackitt’s team, not by The Scottish Government.

9 May 2018 – Teleconference

Dame Judith Hackitt and MHCLG support team with Scottish Ministers and Building & Fire Safety officials. It is understood that the purpose of the call was to seek an update on the findings of the final report and its timetable for publication, together with any feedback on interaction with Scottish stakeholders which may be material to ongoing parallel review on Scotland.
General Contact –

We are advised that there were also a number of informal verbal and email contacts between Scottish Government Building and Fire Safety officials and Dame Judith Hackitt and MHCLG Review officials which did not merit recording on our systems. These would relate to arranging the noted formal contacts (above) or to direct the Review Panel to sources of published information on both the building standards and fire safety systems in Scotland and our ongoing review process.

For further awareness, published information on the review of building and fire safety in Scotland can be accessed via the Building and Fire Safety: Ministerial Working Group which includes the 2018 Building Standards Compliance and Fire Safety Consultation on making Scotland’s buildings safer for people

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