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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the health and safety risks of toxic smoke from cladding, insulation and other building materials in fires in (a) schools and (b) hospitals.

The Government has used the European system for classifying the combustibility of materials to set the threshold for the ban on the use of combustible materials in the external walls of buildings covered by the ban. The European classification system measures smoke obscuration, though not toxicity. The ban requires that all materials which become part of an external wall or specified attachment achieve European Class A2-s1, d0 or Class A1, other than those covered by exemptions. This means that materials are classified by smoke production as well as combustibility and production of droplets. These classifications impose the maximum possible restriction on smoke production.

In addition, the Department for Education has also committed to ensuring that new school buildings, over 18 metres, built as part of their centrally delivered build programmes will not use combustibles materials in the external walls, in line with the terms of the ban.

The Department for Education’s guidance on schools (BB100) and guidance provided to NHS (Firecode) on fire safety contains detailed information on how to control the risks of fire and its associated hazards, by prevention, containment, and alert.