Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC): Cross Sector Working Group minutes – November 2023

Attendees and apologies

The Scottish Government

• Building Standards Division (Chair)
• Education
• Health and Social Care
• Housing Standards Unit
• Facilities Services
• Education and Justice
• Estate Strategy and Planning
• Courts and Tribunals
• School Funding, Infrastructure and Organisation

External stakeholders

• Police Scotland 
• Fire Scotland
• Scottish Futures Trust
• Health and Safety Executive 
• Scottish Courts Service
• NHS Scotland  
• East Ayrshire Council
• British Property Federation
• Built Environment Forum Scotland
• West Dumbarton Council 
• Historic Environment Scotland
• Scottish Housing Regulator
• Homes for Scotland
• Scottish Funding Council 
• RIAS
• Fife Council
• Edinburgh Council

Items and actions

Note of last meeting (11 October) and actions

Update on previous actions: 

Action point 7.1

Terms of Reference are available via Objective Connect and take into account comments received subsequent to the previous meeting. 

Action point 7.2

Outputs from the Royal Academy of Engineering recent roundtable yet to be provided (Building Standards Division (BSD) officials to follow up)

Action point 7.3

The invitation was issued to Unite and Robertson Construction to attend meetings of the group

Action point 7.4

IStructE FAQ’s have been made available via gov.scot website

Action point 7.5

Discussion on a sub-group to consider best practice to form part of this meeting

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – RAAC as a Building Risk

• representatives from HSE delivered a brief presentation on their work noting that HSE had been involved in addressing issues regarding RAAC for some time with their website being a source of information on RAAC
• HSE was currently looking to raise the profile of RAAC across their inspection regime and in the New Year would be engaging with a small number of dutyholders to take this work forward, likely leading to more inspections and interventions
• research work was underway to better understand the prevalence of RAAC in buildings (though noted this was England focussed) 
• HSE was also planning to engage with commercial landlords with the intention of raising awareness of RAAC – and the potential need for action - in this sector  

RAAC management, mitigation & replacement, including sub group creation

The group considered the establishment of a sub-group for the purposes of discussing the management, mitigation and the long-term replacement of RAAC.

A number of points were noted in respect of the potential issues which might be considered by the proposed sub-group:

• challenges around energy efficiency
• challenges getting landlords to understand the importance of RAAC
• longer-term opportunities provided by remediation
• varying approaches to RAAC across different sectors, including in terms of the degree and extent of assessments  
• importance of understanding the financial implications and possible costs involved – which should be informed by wider industry based information 
• acknowledgement that RAAC would present ongoing issues potentially demanding regular survey work with resource implications (even, if not directly, building cost implications)  

A request was made for volunteers for the subgroup to email the RAAC co-ordination team mailbox, within one week.

Communications

• attendees noted that the RAAC co-ordination team was in the process of developing a communications plan setting out an approach to both internal communication as well as with the public
• the plan would identify key stakeholders and propose a range of methods to communicate key messages
• the importance of an effective communications plan was noted to help ensure consistency of messaging (both internally and externally). A communications plan could also assist with raising awareness of wider RAAC issues and lessons to be learnt 
• the suggestion was made that this might include a link to the information and guidance available on the HSE website

Sectoral updates – by exception only

Local Authority (LA) estate (non school/non housing)

A brief update was provided in respect of the LA (non school/non housing) estate with attendees noting that most LA had returned initial assessments. Good progress was being made assessing the significant number of buildings within scope of the exercise. It was anticipated that a further information gathering exercise would be required to gain updated information including detail about specific mitigating actions.   

Housing 

An update was provided regarding the ongoing collation of data regarding registered social landlords. It was noted that the Scottish Housing Regulator would shortly publish its first analysis of the data returns.   

Any other business

There was no other business to be discussed.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting was confirmed as being on 20 December 2023.   

Actions arising from meeting

Action point 8.1    

To forward the BCIS report (with reference to costs) and to circulate this to the Group via the Objective Connect link.    

Action point 8.2

Volunteers for the RAAC management, mitigation and replacement sub-group.    

Action point 8.3

Proposed expanded SG communications to include a link to HSE’s RAAC guidance.