Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of buildings outside London over 17.7 metres in height with (a) unsafe cladding and (b) other fire safety issues that have had waking watches put in place since 15 March 2021.

The Department continues to work closely with the National Fire Chiefs Council to understand the extent to which waking watch measures are used in Residential Buildings. We do not hold specific information on the number of buildings over 17.7 metres in height which have had waking watches put in place since 15 March 2021.

The Government’s £30 million Waking Watch Relief Fund is designed to incentivise buildings to install a common alarm system and to reduce the dependency on waking watch measures. The Government funding does not remove responsibilities for fire safety from the responsible persons. We are keeping the operation of the Waking Watch Relief Fund under review.