Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC): Management subgroup minutes - 10 October 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government (SG)
• Cabinet Office (CO)
• NHS Scotland Assure
• Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)
• Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)
• Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
• Historic Environment Scotland (HES)
• Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO)
• Scottish Heads of Property Services (SHoPS)
• The Association of the University Directors of Estates (ADES)

Items and actions

Welcome, minutes and actions from previous meeting

The Chair welcomed everyone to the 5th meeting of the RAAC Management sub-group.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved without change.

In respect of actions from the previous meeting, action 4.1 (sharing an MTC presentation) was noted as complete. Action 4.2 (sharing the results of point cloud survey pilots in the NHS estate) would form item 2 of this meeting.

Recent RAAC activity included the following:

• the Scottish Government had published an overview report of work done to date on the identification, assessment and management of RAAC across the public sector. The report could be found here: https://www.gov.scot/groups/ministerial-working-group-building-and-fire-safety/  
• a lessons learnt exercise was currently underway assessing the administrative response to RAAC and what could be learnt from this to help inform responses to similar events in future
• the social housing sector remains the main area of focus with a range of responses ongoing determined by the circumstances of specific landlords, including Local Authorities. An update of data was expected shortly from the Scottish Housing Regulator effectively concluding this information gathering exercise 
• a recent meeting of the UK Cross Government RAAC core working group reflected a clear move to addressing the various issues raised by RAAC becoming ‘business as usual’. This would therefore be the last meeting of that group though existing channels of communication would continue including through the Property Leaders Board and with information shared via the Government Property Community.

Health – point cloud survey pilot

As initially discussed at the previous meeting, attendees noted the ongoing survey work underway across the NHS estate arising from the original RAAC discovery exercise. Of particular note were a number of cloud point surveys being piloted by NHS Scotland Assure which commenced in mid-June and completed at the end of September (NHS Borders had separately commissioned similar surveys). 

A presentation was given providing an overview of the point cloud survey work. Selective issues included:

• the limitations of the discovery phase of work in identifying RAAC in comparison to this more detailed approach which showed the full extent of RAAC and, more accurately, its condition  
• the time taken between planning a survey and the actual survey due to other building related issues, including the presence of asbestos
• ensuring effective communication and co-ordination between all relevant parties (estates managers, engineers etc)
• annual/triennial monitoring might not be reflective of the true picture with individual situations subject to rapid change
• assessment of a limited number of panels was not sufficient given the extent of RAAC which was not visible  

The discussion which followed focused on the extent that survey work continued across various authorities and sectors as well as the development of guidance concerning the management of RAAC.

West Lothian Council had almost completed the removal and replacement of RAAC across affected school and community buildings. Aberdeen City Council were continuing inspection work, had no plans to remove RAAC from their school estate, and were in the final stages of completing guidance.

NHS Scotland Assure offered to share with the group their RAAC maintenance plans. Similarly, ADES offered to share their Risk Assessment Method Statement (RAMS) for working on - and under - RAAC and which were of relevance to all their facility management staff and contractors working in the vicinity of RAAC.

Action point 5.1 - Sharing of NHS Scotland Assure presentation, RAAC maintenance plans and ‘RAMS’ with the sub-group

Action point 5.2 - Other examples of guidance and risk assessments to be shared via the central RAAC Co-ordination team

Lessons learnt and debrief exercise

Attendees noted that the recent survey issued to those involved in the Scottish Government’s response to RAAC resulted in approximately 50 responses. Two debrief sessions had also taken place (with internal and external representation). The subsequent report would initially be shared internally prior to being made available to the Cross Sector Working Group and used to inform discussion at the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety.

Early assessment of key themes showed the need to have structures in place allowing for early identification of possible issues; the question of whether a RAAC focussed or a more general building materials forum would be more appropriate going forward, and the need to challenge some of the misinformation around RAAC.

Issues raised in discussion included:

• whether or not more historical matters were being considered as part of the exercise (with it being confirmed that only the previous year of work was being assessed)
• the potential for including the survey findings in the MTC playbook
• the possibility of overlap with other, similar, exercises underway

It was also confirmed that the Scottish Government continued to engage on building maintenance issues more widely through the Building Safety Regulator (and others).  

Sector Updates

In continuing discussion from the previous meeting, MTC confirmed that the ‘RAAC Playbook’ had been finished – though as research and understanding into RAAC continued to develop it would constantly be a ‘work in progress’ and should be considered as such. It was expected that the Playbook would be publicly available very soon and in due course would be ‘live’ allowing for online updates.

There was at present no confirmed funding in place to support further development of the Playbook but discussions were continuing with the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology and the Office of Government Property. Support – and feedback - from this Group would be welcome in helping to develop the business case for further progress with the Playbook.

In response to a question about the inclusion of an executive summary, MTC committed to considering this as an addition.

IStructE confirmed that a ‘call to action’ had been emailed to all members in Scotland with RAAC now also separately referenced as a category on the ‘find an engineer’ part of their website. To date, there had been a low response to the call to action and a further email to members was planned.

In support of further communication and information sharing, IStructE observed that feedback from housing associations about the type of residential properties affected would be useful in the interests of tailoring advice and guidance as appropriate to specific circumstances.

Action point 5.3 - Consideration of Executive Summary of the Playbook

Action point 5.4 - Feedback on the MTC Playbook

Any other business

The Chair raised the issue of the future of the sub-group given that RAAC was now largely being dealt with across policy areas and sectors. Similar discussion was also expected at the next meeting of the Cross Sector Working Group after which a decision would be made on the future of the Groups.

Action Point 5.5 - Views on the future of the sub-group