Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to identify and assess buildings on its estate that contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property. Of the buildings where DWP has direct responsibility, two were found to have RAAC. One is being remedied but is currently unoccupied, one is being monitored annually as per the Institute of Structural Engineers guidance.

DWP also occupies several hundred buildings where it is the minor occupier or does not have responsibility for the fabric of the building however, we have pro-actively contacted these landlords.

One of these buildings has RAAC which is the landlord’s responsibility, and this is being managed by monitoring as per structural engineers’ guidance. The RAAC does not affect the part of the building that DWP occupies.