Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department took prior to 2017 to assess whether both industry and officials of his Department fully understood Government guidance on the use of ACM cladding issued in Approved Document B.

Officials from the Department regularly meet with trade bodies and other representative bodies in order to discuss the application of building regulations to assist them in developing advice for their members. For example, in 2015 the Building Control Alliance, a group made up of representatives of building control bodies across England and Wales, issued advice to its members on the guidance on cladding systems. The steps which the Department took in relation to the guidance in Approved Document B are matters for the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire.